At first summit without Orbán, Zelenskyy rejects “symbolic” EU membership in World Economy News 25/04/2026 EU leaders are meeting for a second day of an informal summit in Cyprus today, after making history on Thursday with the adoption of a €90 billion loan for Ukraine. Hungary’s election outcome last week helped clear the path for the move, lifting Budapest’s veto and giving Kyiv additional resources to continue resisting Russian forces. Outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, long one of the EU’s main disruptors, did not travel to Cyprus, leaving heads of state and government also celebrating a new package of sanctions against Russia adopted earlier in the day. That said, Ukraine’s membership was brought to the table. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who attended the meeting in person on Thursday night, pushed to open accession “clusters” for Ukraine, arguing Kyiv met the necessary conditions. Orbán’s exit has removed a key obstacle. “Clusters” refer to groupings of negotiation chapters required in the accession process for any new EU member. After leaks earlier this week that France and Germany had pitched the idea of a “symbolic” pre-accession, Zelenskyy told reporters on WhatsApp Thursday: “Ukraine does not need symbolic membership in the EU. Ukraine is defending itself and is definitely defending Europe. And it is not defending Europe symbolically – people are really dying.” You can read Sasha Vakulina’s story here. He added after meeting the leaders that the only thing Ukraine was asking was to speed up the “full” membership “with a clear start date.” On the EU’s side, Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal told Europe Today that he cannot see any way other than “Ukraine’s future is in Europe,” adding: “The question is only when, not if.” To watch the full interview, it’s here. Leaders also turned to the Middle East, as the Iran conflict is spreading across the region, including the recent killing of two French soldiers in Lebanon. Attention focused in particular on the EU’s Article 42.7 mutual defence clause. The issue gained prominence after a Shahed drone struck a British military base in Cyprus at the start of the conflict, with Nicosia among the few EU countries not covered by NATO’s Article 5. But discussion of the clause remains politically sensitive, as leaders seek to avoid signalling to Washington that Europe no longer relies on NATO protection. The Iran war is also feeding into energy markets, with the Strait of Hormuz and rising energy prices high on the agenda. Leaders reviewed options presented by the European Commission on Wednesday to mitigate the impact of the blockade, but took no immediate decisions given the informal nature of the meeting. The Iran war will return today, with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria as well as Kuwaiti H.E. Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi, Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), invited to a broader session. Another thorny issue on the agenda is the EU’s seven-year budget. Talks will focus on the size of the budget and EU’s own resources, with the traditional “frugal” group — Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden — joined by other net contributors including Germany, Finland, France, Belgium and Ireland, all aiming to keep national contributions under control. The goal is to reach an agreement by end-2026, a challenging timeline, likely to involve long nights of negotiations. But the EU27 are no strangers to that. EU approves €90 billion loan for Ukraine after Hu