Sweden's and Finland's membership would make the alliance stronger, according to Fidesz MP Zsolt Németh.Continue reading
Hungary is delaying the ratification of Finland’s NATO accession because of the EU’s freezing of funds, and the country is under huge international pressure, an expert quoted by Index.hu said. However, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán made it clear earlier that Hungary does not link the issue of NATO enlargement to other issues.
Hungary will not be the last NATO member state to ratify both Finland and Sweden, the Hungarian embassy in Helsinki said in response to a request from the Finnish portal HS. The website asked the embassy whether Hungary insists on ratifying Finland’s accession before Turkey.
According to HS, it is noteworthy that the Hungarian embassy’s statement deals with Finland and Sweden together, not separately, although the question only concerned Finland. They also point out that Hungary does not take a position on Turkey ratifying Finland’s membership before Sweden.
The website contacted Katalin Miklóssy, a Hungarian researcher at the University of Helsinki’s Aleksanteri Institute, who believes that Hungary’s reluctance is because of EU Funds.
EU Member States decided in December to cut 6.3 billion euros from Hungary’s cohesion funds in the budget period until 2027, Index reported. In addition, Hungary will not even receive the 5.8 billion euro economic stimulus package agreed to in summer 2020 if it fails to meet all 27 reforms set out by the European Commission. According to Miklóssy, it looks very unlikely that the country will be able to deliver on them.
She said that the international pressure on Hungary is now exceptionally high, and if Turkey ratifies Finland’s NATO membership before Hungary does, this will only increase.
Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán stressed earlier that Hungary is not linking the issue of Sweden’s and Finland’s NATO membership to any other issue, despite speculations in the media and some comments by Finnish PM Sanna Marin.
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