ER Editor: Hungary is playing hard ball with the EU over Ukraine funding, and for very good reason.
See this RT report from September 29 —
EU state sets condition for further Ukrainian aid from Brussels
Of note:
Budapest will block further EU aid to Ukraine if Kiev doesn’t account for the money it has already received from Brussels since the start of the conflict with Russia, a senior Hungarian government official has said.
“There are many technical ways to finance Ukraine and also help in the humanitarian field,” said Gergely Gulyas, the head of the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office. He told a briefing on Thursday that Hungary had no objections to individual EU countries providing assistance to Kiev.
He said unanimity would be required regarding any changes to the EU budget, however, which is currently “on the table for amendment.”
Budapest will make sure that Ukraine “will not receive a single penny of new aid” if it can’t account for the funds it has already been given by the EU, Gulyas insisted.
See also this from Sputnik, the same publication day —
Orban: EU May Have Given Hungarian Money to Ukraine
BUDAPEST (Sputnik) – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has indicated that some of the EU funds that Brussels is supposed to allocate to Budapest may already have been transferred to Kiev..
The European Union froze over €6 billion designated for Hungary last September due to alleged political concerns. However, Hungarian PM Orban insists that Hungary has met all the EU’s requirements and that the funds were rather used to back the Kiev regime.“It is possible that some of it [the money] is already in Ukraine. If there is no money to give Ukraine the sums promised before, and we promise to give new sums, and there are people who haven’t received the money, it is reasonable to assume that this money is already gone. We don’t know for sure because Brussels is not clear about it,” Orban said on a Hungarian radio station.He added that Brussels owes Hungary “more than three billion euros” because Budapest “paid everything that had to be paid.”.“In terms of the Hungarian budget, this is a significant amount,” the prime minister stressed..
Earlier, Gergely Gulyas, the current head of the prime minister’s office, said that Ukraine would not receive any EU budget funds until Hungary gets its rightful share, as unanimous support is necessary to adjust the EU budget.
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Orban is also weighing in on the (laughable) question of Ukraine membership into the EU. Kudos —
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EU fails to unblock €5 billion aid to Ukraine
The bloc has promised Kiev more money despite the ongoing opposition from Budapest
RT
The EU will consider a €5 billion military aid package for Ukraine for 2024, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in Kiev on Monday. Hungary’s veto on the existing €500 million “European Peace Facility” fund has not yet been withdrawn, however.
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“I have proposed a new multi-annual bilateral allocation of the European Peace Facility, up to five billion for next year,” Borrell said at a joint press conference with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba. “I hope we can reach an agreement before the end of the year.”
He did not mention the fate of the current EPF funds, which Hungary has been holding up since May. According to EuroNews, Borrell made no reference to Budapest’s position, saying only that the EU support for Kiev would continue “in all dimensions.”
Hungary’s Peter Szijjarto was conspicuously absent as 26 other members of the bloc sent foreign ministers for a surprise meeting in Kiev, intended as a show of support for Ukraine in the conflict with Russia. A deputy represented Budapest, according to EuroNews.
“The EU remains united in its support for Ukraine,” Borrell insisted at the press conference. “We remain united. I do not see any member state reneging in its commitment to support Ukraine with the tools we have.”
When asked about the specifics of that support, Borrell said the EU would “do more of the same.”
The EU has sent Ukraine more than €25 billion ($26.4 billion) in military aid since February 2022, while the total amount of military, financial, and humanitarian support has reached €85 billion ($89.8 billion), Borrell revealed on Sunday. He also vowed that the bloc would continue aiding Kiev no matter what happened in Washington. The US Congress on Saturday passed a resolution avoiding a government shutdown that did not include new funding for Ukraine.
“We cannot under any circumstances allow America’s support for Ukraine to be interrupted,” US President Joe Biden said on Sunday, urging both Democrats and Republicans to “get this done.”
The Pentagon has about $1.6 billion left of the $25.9 billion Congress had allocated to aiding Ukraine, but is using the money to replenish US military stockpiles, two officials told Politico on Monday. An earlier “accounting error” has freed up another $5.4 billion worth of weapons and ammunition from the US arsenal, under a Presidential Drawdown authority. (ER: ah, these ‘errors’)
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Source
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