Sweden and Finland have had the ambition to join NATO "hand in hand". But on Tuesday, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M) announced that the likelihood of Finland becoming a full member before Sweden had increased.
Turkey is not yet prepared to approve the Swedish application. And now the risk is that Ungen will do the same, according to Anamaria Dutceac Segesten, senior lecturer in European studies at Lund University.
"I can imagine it's a possibility. Turkey has opened up to that option. Then Hungary will show its goodwill towards the partnership with NATO while continuing to negotiate with the EU to gain access to cohesion policy," she says.
The planned vote in Hungary's parliament on Sweden's and Finland's NATO applications has been postponed a number of times recently. As recently as Tuesday, the Hungarian newspaper HGV reported that the government had postponed the parliamentary vote again on the grounds that "ongoing negotiations with the European Commission have not been concluded".
"NATO and EU issue lumped together"
Last year, the EU chose to freeze grant money to Hungary because it had not met the demands made by the EU to restore an independent judiciary. Now Hungary is using the NATO negotiations as a way to blackmail the EU to gain greater access to the grant money, according to Anamaria Dutceac Segesten.
She believes that Hungary may want to continue negotiations with the EU for a while longer to take advantage of the Swedish EU presidency, which runs until June 30.
– For Hungary, the NATO issue and the EU issue are lumped together, those issues are treated as one, Anamaria Dutceac Segesten.
Hear Anamaria Dutceac Segesten on how Hungary might act on the NATO issue in the future in the clip above.