"There is no time to delay": Estonian Prime Minister warned of a "bad signal" not to start accession talks with Ukraine

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said upon arrival at the EU summit that "we have a long day ahead of us," UNN reports citing The Guardian.

Read more

According to Politico, she is "not optimistic" about a deal on Ukraine after speaking with her Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban. Kallas said she spoke with Orban and he told her that "he doesn't see a deal right now."

Kallas said she was not ready to give up and would continue to push for a compromise in bilateral meetings and group discussions.

"We have tried - but we will try again, so we will try to convince, we will try to negotiate. That's why we are not ready to give up yet," she said.

There are "different arguments, different proposals, there are compromises," Kallas said.

"We have to reach some kind of agreement - we don't have time to delay or postpone it for the future," Kallas said, adding that it would be a "bad signal" not to start accession talks with Ukraine.

"It is definitely a bad signal, I hope that we will be able to agree at least on some of the items that are on the list," she said.

Kallas emphasized that Ukraine has fulfilled the criteria for starting negotiations and that the talks will last for years.

"Since the European Commission has prepared a report based on merit - of course, this is a political decision on our part - but we have to follow the report. Ukraine has fulfilled the criteria to start accession negotiations. And accession negotiations take several years, as we know from our own history," she said.

Regarding Orban's reluctance to agree on the proposed 50 billion euro aid package for Ukraine, Kallas said that other EU countries will try to broker a deal, but if Hungary abstains, the other 26 member states will look for other options.

If EU leaders do not agree on funding for Ukraine, they risk spending Christmas in Brussels, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas warned at the EU-Western Balkans summit on Wednesday.

To recap,

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban showed no signs of being ready to compromise on Ukraine's EU accession when he arrived at the summit on Thursday morning.