Poland has angrily reacted to Hungary blocking the payment of about 2 billion euros from European Union funds intended to compensate Warsaw for its military aid to Ukraine, Brussels Signal reports.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government is blocking the payment from the European Peace Fund, an extra-budgetary EU instrument designed to reimburse governments sending military aid to Kyiv.
Hungarians have consistently opposed military aid to Kyiv, and Orbán has maintained high-level relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the outbreak of military conflict in Ukraine in 2022.
Orbán recently visited the Russian capital and Kyiv in an attempt to facilitate talks to end the war. This drew criticism from other EU leaders who claimed that the Hungarian government was actually aiding the Russians. The Hungarians countered that channels must remain open for both countries to reach a peace agreement.
On July 10, at the NATO summit in Washington, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters that “Hungary is abusing our trust” and called the Hungarian position “unfriendly and hostile.” He confirmed that the money blocked by the country was intended to finance the modernisation of Poland’s armed forces.
An unnamed Polish Government official told portal Onet.pl:
“If the Hungarians hadn’t blocked payments, we would have already got a lot of money back. In total, we have invested about €4.5 billion in helping Ukraine. We could get about half of it back.”
The official claimed Hungary was devising “new excuses” to delay the transfer of the funds, adding that the latest reason Budapest gave involved alleged mistreatment of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine.
Hungary and the European Commission are also feuding over frozen funds for Kovid’s “reconstruction” of billions of euros owed to Kyiv.
Polish President Andrzej Duda has criticised Hungary for its stance on the war. In an interview with Polish commercial TV channel TVN24, Duda said:
“In matters of foreign policy, especially when it comes to Ukraine, Poland and Hungary, led by Viktor Orbán, today have two completely polar [opposite] approaches.”
Poland is not the only country affected by the blocking of funds. The debt that the EU owes to all countries supporting Ukraine is about 9 billion euros.
In June, the foreign ministers of 26 EU countries decided to override Hungary’s veto on proposed aid to Ukraine, allowing up to 1.4 billion euros for ammunition and air defence equipment to be provided to Kyiv. However, this only applies to frozen Russian financial assets and does not solve the problem of Hungary blocking other EU funds.
Budapest is likely to come under pressure: a Polish official confirmed to Onet.pl that “harsh words will be said” and Hungary is likely to want concessions from the EU on the allocation of EU funds.
