Europe

Viktor Orban vows to stand firm against EU funding for Ukraine

Hungary’s leader insists he will not be swayed by threats or offers of money

Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orban speaks at a press conference in Budapest on Thursday. Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP via Getty Images

Marton Dunai in Budapest
Thu Dec 21 2023 - 17:35

Viktor Orban has vowed to stand firm on blocking the EU’s financial package for Ukraine, saying he will not be swayed by offers of money or threats from fellow leaders at an emergency summit next year.

The firebrand Hungarian leader vetoed a four-year, €50 billion aid package to Kyiv last week, leaving fellow EU leaders racing to find alternatives, which may require a cumbersome procedure to send money without Hungary.

Speaking at his only international press conference of the year, Mr Orban said he would insist that the EU meets four conditions if leaders want to press ahead with Ukraine funding at a planned summit early next year.

He demanded the funding package be modest in size, outside the common EU budget, stretching over one year rather than four, and designed to exempt Hungary from any new joint EU borrowing.

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“To commit in advance to giving Ukraine €50 billion for [four] years from the EU budget, which has no money to fund this, so forcing new borrowing, that is a bad decision,” Mr Orban said. “We should make a good one instead.”

The EU is trying to develop ways for 26 of its member states to support Ukraine on a bilateral basis if Hungary is unwilling to participate.

Mr Orban indicated that would be the only way forward at an emergency summit due on February 1st, adding he did not fear EU leaders retaliating against him by threatening to suspend Hungary’s voting rights.

“The EU treaty is clear that such a procedure can only be launched in case of a sustained breach of the rule of law,” he said. “But the European Commission has just said ... our justice system is in order. I am not concerned.”

The commission last week unblocked about €10 billion of funds, part of more than €30 billion that had been frozen because of longstanding rule-of-law concerns. But it has kept more than €20 billion held back, and Mr Orban said that money was still “due to Hungary”.

Even so, Mr Orban said he would not relent in his opposition to the Ukraine funding proposal, even if the rest of the money was released. “This is not about the money, but about the four conditions I have outlined,” he said.

He also claimed he had only agreed to allow the EU to start accession talks with Ukraine because fellow heads of state reminded him at the summit that Hungary had dozens of future opportunities to block Ukraine’s path to membership.

“What we are preparing to do now is a mistake. I spent eight hours in vain trying to convince the other leaders about this,” Mr Orban said. “They are against Hungary now but they will eventually come around.”

Mr Orban defended a decision earlier this year to hold direct talks with Vladimir Putin, saying it was “the right thing to do”, and also defended describing the invasion of Ukraine as a “special military operation”.

“It is a military operation, as in there is no declaration of war between the two countries,” he said. “We should all be glad there is no war, because war means a general draft, which I don’t wish upon anyone.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023

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