Negotiations between European Union countries aiming to agree on aid to Ukraine later this week remain difficult, despite Hungary signaling its willingness to compromise.
EU leaders at Thursday’s summit will reaffirm their determination to continue to provide “timely, predictable and sustainable military support” to Ukraine. However, negotiations on the approval of a four-year financial assistance program for Ukraine in the amount of 50 billion euros are becoming more complicated. All because of Hungary.
What does Orban want?
Orban offers the EU such a compromise on the issue of aid to Ukraine – funding will be allocated to Ukraine on the condition that “if you guarantee that every year we will decide whether we will continue to send this money or not.” That is, in essence, it means an opportunity for Hungary to block aid every year.
Orbán noted that this annual approval must also happen unanimously by all EU members.
“Unfortunately, this position is understood or interpreted by some countries as a form of annual blackmail… Our position is not about blackmailing the veto, but about restoring and maintaining the unity of European Union,” said the Hungarian Prime Minister.
In the EU against
Budapest’s conditions for lifting the veto on financial aid to Kyiv are unacceptable to other EU countries.
Hungary’s EU colleagues are reluctant to agree to an annual review of support for Kyiv because it would give Orban the right to veto the decision every time, a senior EU official told Reuters. on condition of anonymity.
Extra money
The main topic of Thursday’s summit in Brussels is the release of a financial aid package for Ukraine worth 50 billion euros over four years, which was blocked by Hungary at the previous summit in December.
Reuters said the conclusions of the draft summit leave open the question of whether EU leaders will also commit to contributing another 5 billion euros in aid to Ukraine to the European Peace Fund, which is used to finance arms supplies to Kyiv.
The idea of allocating an additional 5 billion euros is included in the draft text in square brackets. This means the issue is still under discussion, the agency said.
“The European Council reaffirms the urgent need to speed up the delivery of ammunition and missiles,” part of the draft communique read.
Source: korrespondent
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