Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) will take part in an EU meeting with several EU heads of government in Berlin on Monday evening. At the EU summit in Granada in October, it was agreed to discuss EU objectives in an informal exchange in smaller groups. According to the EU Council, issues to be discussed include future EU enlargement, future EU financing and reform of EU decision-making and voting rules.
Small group meetings take place in various capitals across the European Union. According to the Federal Chancellery, in addition to Chancellor Nehammer, the President of the EU Council, Charles Michel, and the host, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the heads of state and government of Greece, Belgium, Cyprus, Lithuania are also represented in Berlin. and Hungary. The relationship with Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, is particularly difficult. Hungary has not yet given EU partner Sweden the green light to join NATO. Hungary is also skeptical about Ukraine’s prospects of joining the EU, as desired by the European Commission.
According to the Chancellery’s announcement, Austria’s focus is particularly on a “paradigm shift in the area of migration”, “on strengthening the EU’s competitiveness in the world” and “on an honest approach to enlargement, in which all potential candidates are treated equally.” ” . The European Union should “concentrate on the big issues and take a step back on the smaller issues,” Nehammer demanded. The Chancellor emphasized once again that the EU’s asylum system is “broken.” As far as futures are concerned EU enlargements, Nehammer warned that there should be “no accelerated procedures for some candidates.” The objection apparently referred to Ukraine, with which the EU Commission recently recommended accession talks.
“Nobody promised anyone an accelerated procedure, this is pure populism that the Chancellor is once again pursuing out of fear of the FPÖ”, NEOS foreign policy spokesman Helmut Brandstätter then said angrily. “Ukraine is fighting on the front lines for our basic European values, our freedom and our democracy – so it deserves to have serious accession talks with it,” he said in a broadcast. “By announcing the accession talks, the European Commission clearly signaled to Putin and his friends that Europe cannot be divided. Nehammer should do the same and not fall into fear of those who understand Putin – neither in terms of enlargement, nor in Asylum issues, where the ÖVP has been blocking solutions for years.”