InHungary blocked a package of financial assistance to Ukraine for €18 billion Czech Finance Minister Zbigniew Stanyura will appeal to the EU Commission on Economics and Finance to find an alternative solution to help Kiev, which will be supported by all EU members
Kiev, Ukraine
Hungary vetoed a package of financial assistance to Ukraine in the amount of €18 billion ($18.9 billion) in 2023, the Associated Press reported.
“Hungary opposes changes in financial legislation,” Hungarian Finance Minister Mihai Varga said in Brussels at a meeting of the EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council (quoted by Interfax-Ukraine).
According to the agency, due to Hungary’s veto, the remaining 26 EU member states will need to develop a new, more complex plan to guarantee Kiev that aid will continue to arrive in 2023.
“As a result, an agreement was found on formulations that allow for flexible and quick transfer of funds to Ukraine without radically changing the way the EU manages its funds. I say “agreement”, but in fact this agreement was minus one,” the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee of the Council of the EU commented on the situation.
Czech Finance Minister Zbigniew Stanyura said he would ask the Commission on Economics and Finance to find an alternative solution that would be supported by all members of the union. He promised that the bloc “will find an opportunity to support Ukraine”.
In early November, the European Commission decided in 2023 to provide Ukraine with “euro;18 billion in the form of “very preferential loans” for the payment of salaries and pensions, ensuring the operation of hospitals and schools and the restoration of critical infrastructure destroyed after the shelling.
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The magazine Heti Világgazdaság wrote that Hungary did not support the idea. The country’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban proposed to determine the total amount that the EU is ready to give to Ukraine, and “proportionally and fairly” distribute it among the countries.
Orban stressed that Hungary will pay Kiev 60-70 billion forints per year (about 150 million euros) as part of a bilateral agreement.
On November 24, Orban ordered to allocate 187 million euros from the country’s budget, which will be transferred to Ukraine as a soft loan in 2023. The document stated that the funds were allocated in accordance with the decision of the European Union to provide Ukraine with loans for economic recovery in 2023.
Hungary is one of the few EU countries that, after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, did not begin to provide military support to Kiev, and also repeatedly advocated easing anti-Russian sanctions.
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