Hungary may hinder EU sanctions extension against Russia this week

EU leaders managed to parry Hungary’s attempt to derail their Ukraine summit last week, but diplomats are now bracing for a bare-knuckled brawl over Russia sanctions this week, Report informs via Euractiv.

At a largely harmonious EU summit on Thursday, EU leaders simply worked around Hungary, which refused to sign on to the statement that all other EU leaders "firmly supported”. Budapest, though, didn’t seem too bothered.

At least this time, other EU leaders managed to avoid Hungary holding EU foreign policy hostage, with some suggesting that the Budapest bypass could be replicated in the future.

Some EU diplomats, however, have privately voiced their surprise that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has made an art of coaxing concessions out of Brussels, did not ask not anything in exchange this time. Nor did he bring up any contentious issues – such as sanctions on Russia – at the gathering, according to accounts from within the room.

But Orbán's zen-like approach might have more to do with the fact that no actual decisions were taken at the gathering. The next summit, slated for 20 March, could prove more laborious.

Diplomats said they believe Budapest has partly held its fire to save ammunition for the big battle next week – a crucial decision to extend a package of EU sanctions, which needs to be rolled over every six months and is up by 15 March.

There's no way to dance around Budapest this time, since sanctions require unanimous agreement from all 27 EU countries. That gives Orbán much more leverage to extract whatever he might want or threaten to blow up the deal for real.

The EU restrictive measures in question target persons, companies and other entities that the EU says are directly involved in undermining the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine by imposing travel bans and asset freezes.

There are currently over 2,400 individuals and entities on the EU's blacklist.

Budapest, over the past three years, has weaponized the periodic sanctions renewal as a bargaining chip and has repeatedly sought to remove some of the sanctioned individuals.