Bloomberg: Italian Prime Minister Meloni is trying to persuade Orban to support Ukraine

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is trying to negotiate with Viktor Orban so that he stops delaying the decision to support Ukraine in the European Union (EU) and mends relations with Volodymyr Zelensky.

This was reported by Bloomberg with reference to interlocutors who are familiar with the progress of the negotiations.

According to Bloomberg interlocutors, Meloni offers Orbanʼs Fidesz party to join the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) association before the upcoming elections to the European Parliament.

In order for Fidesz to join the ECR, the Italian Prime Minister wants Orban to change his approach to Ukraineʼs EU membership aspirations and reset relations with Kyiv. Discussions between the representatives of the leaders of Italy and Hungary "were held at various levels, but no decision has yet been made," the publication notes.

The ECR currently includes Meloniʼs Brothers of Italy party, Polandʼs Law and Justice (PiS) party, and the nationalist Sweden Democrats. The addition of Fidesz will give the ECR party an advantage in the summer elections to the European Parliament.

The more extreme right-wing group Identity and Democracy, as well as the center-right European Peopleʼs Party, from which Fidesz left in 2021, will compete with the European Conservatives and Reformists for electoral support.

• Hungaryʼs prime minister was the only one to promise an EU funding package in December 2023, postponing key €50m support for Ukraine. The EU will review the four-year funding deal at an emergency summit on February 1, 2024.
• Italy took over the presidency of the Group of Seven (G7) on January 1, taking over from Japan, which held the presidency in 2023. The main topics of Italyʼs presidency of the Group of Seven (G7) in 2024 will be Russiaʼs war against Ukraine, the crisis in the Middle East caused by the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, and artificial intelligence.