Eyes on Hungary as EU decides on a new 50 billion-euro aid package for aid to Ukraine

The European Union on Thursday announced a unanimous deal between member states on sending 50 billion euros in financial aid to Ukraine, overcoming opposition from Hungary’s Viktor Orban at a crunch summit in Brussels. In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban boasts about his ties with the Kremlin despite the rest of the bloc seeking to isolate Moscow over the war. Budapest already vetoed aid to Kyiv last month and has voiced criticism over military assistance. The leaders of the 27 European Union countries sealed a deal Thursday to provide Ukraine with a new 50-billion-euro ($54 billion) support package for its war-ravaged economy despite weeks of threats from Hungary to veto the move. The EU’s 27 national leaders convening in Brussels must agree unanimously to approve aid to Ukraine from their shared budget. With the stakes so high, the bloc has stepped up pressure on Orban, though sources in EU hub Brussels said ahead of the summit they did not know if Budapest would agree to what the other 26 member countries are determined to do. European Council President Charles Michel announced the agreement that was reached in the first hour of a summit he was chairing in Brussels. “We have a deal,” Michel said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. He said the agreement “locks in steadfast, long-term, predictable funding for Ukraine,” and demonstrated that the “EU is taking leadership and responsibility in support for Ukraine; we know what is at stake.” In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban boasts about his ties with the Kremlin despite the rest of the bloc seeking to isolate Moscow over the war. Budapest already vetoed aid to Kyiv last month and has voiced criticism over military assistance. The EU’s 27 national leaders convening in Brussels must agree unanimously to approve aid to Ukraine from their shared budget. With the stakes so high, the bloc has stepped up pressure on Orban, though sources in EU hub Brussels said ahead of the summit they did not know if Budapest would agree to what the other 26 member countries are determined to do. In December, the 26 other leaders agreed the $54-billion package would run from 2024 through 2027. They also agreed to make Ukraine a candidate for EU membership, which Orban reluctantly accepted. But the financial package was part of a review of the EU’s continuing seven-year budget, which requires unanimous approval. An EU official, who asked not to be named because the summit was ongoing, said the leaders agreed that the bloc’s executive branch, the European Commission, would propose a review of the budget in two years, if deemed necessary. Such a review would not include an opportunity for a future veto, the official added. Almost two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the war has ground to a halt, and Ukraine’s economy desperately needs propping up. But political infighting in the EU and in the United States has held up a long-term source of funding. “Continued EU financial support for Ukraine will strengthen long-term economic and financial stability, which is no less important than military assistance and sanctions pressure on Russia,” Zelenskyy wrote Thursday on X. On the way into their meeting, several fellow leaders had lashed out at Orban, accusing him of blackmail and playing political games that undermined support for Ukraine and the country’s war-ravaged economy. Concern has mounted that public support to keep pouring money into Ukraine has started to wane, even though a Russian victory could threaten security across Europe. “There is no problem with the so-called Ukraine fatigue issue. We have Orban fatigue now in Brussels,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters Thursday. “I can’t understand. I can’t accept this very strange and very egoistic game of Viktor Orban.” Orban, the EU leader with the closest ties to Russia, is angry at the European Commission’s decision to freeze his government’s access to some of the bloc’s funds over concerns about the alleged democratic backsliding in Hungary. In response, Hungary vetoed statements at the EU on a range of issues. Orban’s also exported the problem to NATO, by blocking high level meetings with Ukraine until only recently. Budapest is also holding up Sweden’s bid for membership in the military organization. “I don’t want to use the word blackmail, but I don’t know what other better word” might fit, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told reporters as she arrived at EU headquarters. “Hungary needs Europe,” she said, highlighting the country’s own economic problems and high interest rates. “He should also look into what it is in it for Hungary, being in Europe.” Tusk insisted that there could be “no room for compromise on our principles, like rule of law. And for sure there is no room for compromise on the Ukraine question.” The recently elected Polish leader added of Orban: “If his position will dominate in Europe, then Ukraine will lose for sure.” Here is what EU leaders will discuss behind closed doors: BUDGET AID Sources said late on Wednesday that there was no deal yet with Budapest over granting Ukraine 50 billion euros from the bloc’s shared budget through 2027. In a bid to win Orban over, the bloc proposed an annual debate on the matter, but not a full-fledged budgetary review that would give Budapest the right to veto each time. While formally separate, the discussion overlaps with a long-running feud between the EU and Orban in which billions of euros that had been earmarked for Budapest in the bloc’s shared coffers remain frozen over democratic backsliding in Hungary. Should Orban stick to his guns, the EU is also looking at alternative ways of supporting Ukraine. Each of them, however, would be more complicated, lengthy or expensive. MILITARY FUND Draft summit conclusions have left open whether leaders will also pledge to put another 5 billion euros into a fund called the European Peace Facility (EPF), which has been used to bankroll donations of weapons to Kyiv. EU members have been wrangling for months over the future of the fund’s role in military aid to Ukraine, with Germany suggesting the focus should now be on bilateral aid from individual countries. The bloc’s top diplomat said on Wednesday the EU would fall far short of its target of sending one million artillery shells to Ukraine by March. For its part, Hungary has stepped up criticism of the EU’s military support for Ukraine, and has in the past held up hundreds of millions of euros in payouts from the EPF. NATO AWAITS HUNGARY’S NOD FOR SWEDEN Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he would meet Orban in Brussels, with Hungary being the only NATO member yet to approve Stockholm’s membership in the alliance since Turkey gave its green light following months of delay. Most EU countries are also NATO members but the two organisations are separate and the Thursday summit is not due to decide on the membership application Sweden filed following Russia’s attack on Ukraine. With inputs from agencies.