European leaders try to stop Orbán derailing Ukraine’s EU accession bid

Hungary’s PM, the union’s most pro-Russian leader, wants the issue off the agenda of a summit next week

European leaders are scrambling to rescue a plan to begin European Union accession negotiations for Ukraine, as Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán vows to block the decision at a summit of EU leaders next week.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, is due to host Orbán for dinner in Paris on Thursday, while the European Council president, Charles Michel, was in Budapest last week looking for a way out of the impasse.