According to EU commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Ukraine should be given more money and its accession to the EU should be accelerated. In response, Orbán called her policies a “scandal.”

“Ukraine gets money and weapons, and European taxpayers foot the bill,” said Orbán, who responded to von der Leyen’s speech on X.

EU support for Ukraine was discussed at the plenary session of the European Parliament on Wednesday.

In her speech, von der Leyen highlighted three critical points, saying Ukraine needs more weapons, that energy dependence on Russia needs to be ended, and that Ukraine’s ascension process into the EU should be accelerated.

Orbán is making a full-court press against von der Leyen’s speech, highlighting the threat Ukraine also poses to EU agriculture. He notes that Ukraine controls 40 percent of the arable land in Europe, which would result in the EU market being flooded with cheap crops.

Europe has already flooded Ukraine with tens of billions in taxpayer money, yet the EU wants to continue sending billions to the country, even as inflation has eaten into citizens’ pocketbooks.

Hungarian MEP András László wrote in a response that the most obvious reason for keeping Ukraine out of the EU is that a war is still raging between the country and Russia. However, rebuilding Ukraine will cost tens of billions, with some estimates going as high as hundreds of billions. With many EU nations already facing massive debt burdens, allowing Ukraine to enter the EU would perhaps be the greatest financial folly the bloc has ever partaken in.

There are hardly any rational arguments for Ukraine's quick EU-accession:
– still at war with Russia,
– low standards of living and reconstruction costs would massively burden the EU and national budgets,
– massive agricultural sector would upset EU food market.

Ukraine joining…

— András LÁSZLÓ MEP 🇭🇺 (@laszloan) May 8, 2025