Hungary Threatens to Block EU Joint Funds for Ukraine Aid

Zoltan Simon
·2 min read
161

(Bloomberg) -- Hungary won’t back European Union efforts to aid Ukraine with jointly raised funds, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said, a stance that comes as Budapest fights with the bloc to access recovery funds held up by a rule-of-law dispute.

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Hungary has provided support for Kyiv on a bilateral basis and will continue to do so, Szijjarto said Monday at a conference in Sofia. Budapest opposes any arrangement that would see funding jointly with other EU member states, he said.

The EU on Wednesday will propose a new €18 billion ($18 billion) aid package for Ukraine for 2023. The plan would use the EU’s budget as a guarantee to raise the funds for Kyiv, a step that involves changes to the bloc’s rules that require the unanimous backing of its 27 member states.

Hungary earlier supported the EU’s decision to jointly raise debt to finance the bloc’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, but it has yet to receive its share of those funds.

The EU’s executive arm is planning to discuss the status of those recovery funds in a meeting on Nov. 22 as Hungary faces a year-end deadline to satisfy EU requirements related to rule of law. Officials are working on an assessment of Hungary’s progress on 17 pieces of legislation that Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government has promised to deliver to reduce graft.

“They’re punishing us and openly blackmailing us with EU money,” Orban told the Budapester Zeitung newspaper last month. “But there’s no legal basis for this -- it’s blackmail, pure and simple.”

EU Gears Up for Hungary Showdown This Month in Rule-of-Law Spat

--With assistance from Jorge Valero.

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