European Union leaders are ready to “play hardball” with Hungary if Prime Minister Viktor Orbán continues to block a 50-billion-euro ($54.5 billion) aid package for Ukraine at an extraordinary summit next week, Bloomberg reports.
On Monday, Hungary opposed an EU proposal to establish a new fund to provide a more reliable way to deliver military aid to Ukraine. Member states are ready to adopt the Ukraine package at a summit in Brussels on February 1, regardless of Hungary’s position, people speaking on condition of anonymity stated.
If Orbán continued to block the support package, the remaining 26 EU countries would decide to pass it without Hungary’s participation. A potential fallback option is to send money to Kyiv by the remaining member states outside of the EU budget process.
If Orbán decides to pursue this path, escalation may occur, including the EU’s imposition of the next round of punitive measures against Budapest, which could lead to its disenfranchisement as a member state, officials suggested.
Such a scenario could expand the conflict, as Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico had already warned other leaders last week that he would defend Hungary against any potential moves to deny Orbán’s government from exercising its rights in the bloc.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó stated after a meeting of top EU diplomats in Brussels that his country did not support updating the current funding mechanism, the European Peace Facility (EPF), in which member states received reimbursement for weapons they sent to Ukraine.
The scope of the fund has been expanded several times, but decisions on allocation and spending require unanimous support from member states. Hungary is currently blocking the payment of the last tranche of 500 million euros from the EPF.
Szijjártó stated that the issue would be discussed during the meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba on January 29. Budapest would consider lifting the ban if Ukraine offered “guarantees” that Hungarian companies would not be added to its list of international war sponsors.
