Several hours into difficult discussions on opening accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, which Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was holding up with his veto, it was German Chancellor Olaf Scholz who came up with the solution, writes POLITICO.

Scholz told Orbán in front of the other leaders that if he really wasn’t willing to agree, he could leave the room so the EU leaders could take an unanimous decision on enlargement in his absence, two officials briefed on the talks said.

Yet that proposal didn’t come spontaneously but had instead been agreed in previous discussions, one of the officials said. A third official said that Orbán was “momentarily absent from the room in a pre-agreed and constructive manner.”