Hungarian parliament committee delays vote on Sweden's NATO bid -opposition MP

[June 29, 2023]  BUDAPEST (Reuters) - The Hungarian parliament's house committee has rejected a proposal to schedule a vote on the ratification of Sweden's NATO membership for next week, a lawmaker of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) party said on Thursday. 

NATO logos are seen at the Alliance headquarters ahead of a NATO Defence Ministers meeting, in Brussels, Belgium, October 21, 2021. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo

After a closed committee session, Agnes Vadai told Reuters that lawmakers of the ruling Fidesz and Christian Democrat parties on the agenda-setting panel did not support putting the vote on the agenda for next week's plenary session.

Sweden has set its sights on formal accession to NATO at the alliance's July 11-12 summit and while it enjoys strong support from other members including the United States, both Turkey and Hungary have so far blocked ratification.

"The House committee has rejected putting the vote on the agenda for next week," Vadai said, adding that her party would again propose a vote on Monday at a full session of parliament.

She said it was "obvious" Fidesz would decide when to schedule the vote depending on Turkey's stance.

"(Prime Minister) Viktor Orban moves in tandem with (Turkish President Tayyip) Erdogan...ignoring Hungarian sovereignty and... breaking the unity of NATO," she said. "As it stands today, there won't be a ratification before the NATO summit."

Parliament's press office said the agenda of next week's session would be made public later on Thursday. A government spokesman and the Foreign Ministry did not reply to emailed Reuters questions.

With Hungary's ratification process stranded in parliament since last July, Orban aired concerns about Sweden and Finland's NATO membership quest - spurred by Russia's invasion of Ukraine - for the first time in February.

Among other criticisms, he has accused both countries of spreading "outright lies" about the health of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary, although Hungarian lawmakers approved Finland's bid in late March.

Reiterating Turkey's position, Erdogan told NATO's secretary general in a phone call on Sunday that Sweden must stop protests by supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Stockholm to obtain a green light to join the alliance.

On Wednesday, a Western official told Reuters that NATO allies have accelerated efforts to convince Turkey to lift its opposition to Sweden's accession but whether they would succeed before the Lithuania summit is unclear.

(Reporting by Krisztina Than and Boldizsar Gyori, editing by Mark Heinrich)

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