Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán strongly opposes negotiations with Ukraine on joining the European Union, claiming that the country is plagued by corruption and poses a threat to European agriculture, AFP reports. Agerpres.

“Ukraine is known as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. It’s a joke! We can’t make a decision to start the process of accession negotiations,” Orban claimed in an interview given to the weekly newspaper Le Point, published on Friday is a few days away before the meeting of the European Council, which will discuss this topic.

In addition, Orbán warns the French about “what this accession will mean from an economic point of view for France.”

“Every year you will have to pay more than 3.5 billion euros in addition to the common budget of the Union,” he said.

“If you allow this agriculture (of Ukraine) to enter the European system of agriculture, it will destroy it the next day,” he assured.

The Hungarian prime minister, who met with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday evening, also explained that his position is inflexible because “more than two-thirds of Hungarian public opinion is against the start of any negotiations.”

But “Ukraine is in trouble,” he admits, because it is “suffering from Russian invasion” and “it is legitimate for the whole European Council to send it good signals,” such as a “strategic partnership” with the EU, rather than accession negotiations.

“When we manage to (…) bring Ukraine closer to Europe in a few years, we will see then,” he said before meeting with President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday.

Viktor Orbán also mentioned the reform of the European asylum system, which is currently being discussed in the EU.

“Maybe it’s better than the previous one, but it’s not an option,” he assessed. “The final decision is that no one can enter European territory without obtaining permission from the authorities based on the procedure,” Orbán said.

At next week’s meeting, Ukraine is waiting for the EU to give the green light to the start of accession negotiations, after the country, together with the Republic of Moldova, received the status of a candidate country last year.

The prospect of a veto from Budapest only complicates the already tense situation involving Ukraine, a country that has been waging war against invading Russian troops since February 2022. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Tuesday asked to remove from the agenda of the European Union summit on December 14-15 two decisions on budget support for Kyiv and the opening of negotiations on EU accession.

It is the second such letter recently sent to Charles Michel by Viktor Orbán, the only EU leader who has maintained close ties with the Kremlin since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Orbán, who constantly questions the European strategy of supporting Kyiv and the effectiveness of sanctions against Russia, has the ability to block these decisions, as unanimity of 27 member states is required.