“Europeans have reacted in a united manner for two years”, according to Yves Bertoncini

The leaders of the 27 member countries of the EU are meeting this Thursday, February 1 in Brussels. In particular, it will be a question of agreeing on new financial aid for Ukraine and the negotiations are difficult.

Ukraine is at the heart of the European Council, Thursday February 1, in Brussels. The issue is the release of new aid of 50 billion euros. This financial support must be unanimously adopted by EU members. Emmanuel Macron said it again this week in Sweden: “The European Union cannot afford a victory for Russia”.

Yves Bertoncini, consultant and teacher in European affairs, notes that “Europeans have nevertheless reacted in a united manner for two years to sanction Russia and to help Ukraine”. According to him, there is “tensions which are manifesting at the moment with Hungary”with “some affinities between Viktor Orban and Vladimir Putin, it seems”. But “that has never stopped Europeans from overcoming these tensions and I believe that they will undoubtedly still do so today”he explains.

“There are ways around” Viktor Orban

En December, Viktor Orban had vetoed this aid planand his position seems to have changed little. But Yves Bertoncini is not worried about a possible blockage by Viktor Orban. For him, “there are ways around it”. He recalls that at the time of the Greek crisis “the British didn’t want us to help the Greeks with European money, so we created an ad hoc tool”. According to him, European construction, precisely, “it’s the story of successive inventions, of compromises that are sometimes a little lame, which end up happening.”

There is also a lot of talk about Ukraine at the moment in farmers’ demonstrations, because we have massively imported food from Ukraine, a huge agricultural power. “Which can be understood, it is part of solidarity with Ukraine”for Yves Bertoncini, while recognizing that “the farmers concerned believe that this is exacerbated competition.”