Shona Murray: The EU cannot take a united stand on important issues in the face of Orban’s obstruction

Ever since the 2022 Russian invasion, Orban has used Europe’s solidarity with Kyiv as a stick to beat it with, writes Shona Murray.

Sat, 21 Mar, 2026 - 01:00

Shona Murray

It's long past the time for the EU to stand up to Hungary’s Viktor Orban. For more than the last decade, he has held Brussels hostage, blocking the passage of EU legislation for his own domestic purposes.

Despite Hungary’s history under Soviet rule, including the Soviet army's brutal crackdown on civilians, killing 2,500 people, Budapest has unashamedly sided with the Kremlin over its 12-year invasion of Ukraine.

For the last four years, throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion, Hungary has attempted to block, dilute or meddle with the EU’s solidarity with efforts to help and defend the people of Ukraine who are suffering the same inhumanity as Hungarians did a long time ago.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives for an EU summit at the Egmont Palace in Brussels. Picture: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP

This week, leaders prepared to gather in Brussels, originally to concentrate on the flailing European economy and spiralling prices. Instead, they game-planned how to pressure Orban to once again stop holding Ukraine to ransom.

This time he’s blocking the passage of the €90bn lifeline for Ukraine agreed and endorsed by all member states, including Orban, last December. Orban even managed to finagle yet another special dispensation for Hungary and is not participating in the loan.

Ever since the 2022 Russian invasion, Orban has used Europe’s solidarity with Kyiv as a stick to beat it with; portraying the donation of weapons and money for Ukraine to defend itself from Russian attacks as somehow being pro-war. He has never once decried the Kremlin as pro-war.

“We expect Hungary to practise loyal co-operation, like we all do”, an EU diplomat fumed ahead of another exhausting encounter with the former anti-communist, pro-democracy activist, Orban. But this is just one more incident in a long list which led Taoiseach Micheál Martin to once accuse Orban of "abusing" the veto.

In December 2023, he refused to endorse Ukraine as a candidate state for EU membership, claiming that doing so would “drag Europe into war with Russia”. At that time, he was also vetoing a €50bn fund to keep war-ravaged Ukraine afloat.

Orban quickly reversed his stance after the EU conceded and handed over €10bn in frozen funding which had been withheld due to allegations of political interference in the judicial system by his government.

The EU accused Orban’s governing of eroding the independence of Justices. The European Commission defended the sudden disseverment of cash, saying Budapest had fulfilled the necessary reforms to receive the money.

However, the EU’s own rule of law report finds the situation regarding democratic accountability receding year-on-year under Orban's leadership.

He has since described the candidacy of Ukraine as an EU member as a “declaration of war".

Hungarian election

Orban is now in the thrust of a general election, and for the first time he might see his 16-year unbroken grip on Hungary slip.

This is despite the fact that he enjoys almost wholesale control of the media and has invested vast amounts of money in a widespread campaign portraying Brussels and Ukrainian president Zelenskyy as ‘enemies’ of Hungarians.

For the last few weeks, Orban has once again hijacked the misfortune of the Ukrainian people as a distraction from the serious defects facing the Hungarian economy under his rule.

Orban’s former party acquaintance, now opposition leader, Péter Magyar, is using his own election platform to promise to deal with widespread corruption, allow public tenders for public sector projects — something the EU has long accused Orban of keeping for his cronies. He is also promising to reach a deal with Brussels to unlock the rest of EU funding that remains withheld due to a lack of meaningful progress on rule-of-law issues.

But this week, once again, EU leaders say they are left with no choice but to suck it up.

'Hard to understand'

Far too frequently, the EU has been forced to issue statements with only 26 out of 27 countries, because Hungary has refused to endorse them. Budapest has thereby blocked the EU from forming a formal policy on a range of consequential matters.

As far back as 2021, during a particularly violent period in Palestine when Israeli settlers were evicting Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell initiated an emergency call among member states to formulate a position to at least call upon Israel to quell the settler violence. The statement also addressed Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel which also killed civilians.

"The upsurge of violence has led to a high number of civilian casualties, deaths, and injuries, among them a high number of children and women, and that this is unacceptable”, Borrell said at the time.

“To be honest, I find it hard to understand” Hungary’s objection, Borrell said, adding that EU foreign policy was “not a caprice but a mandate” for member countries to reach a unified position on important issues around the globe.

Days later, Budapest blocked another statement condemning China’s interference in Hong Kong by suppressing pro-democracy protests.

It seems no matter the issue, Orban never misses an opportunity not to do the right thing.

Shona Murray: EU's failure to rein in Orban could threaten veto of small nations like Ireland