The European Union will try to find an “alternative” solution to send 18,000 million euros vital to Kiev
The pulse between Brussels and Budapest continues to mark the European political agenda. Hungary on Tuesday vetoed macro-financial assistance to Ukraine worth €18,000 million at the meeting of finance ministers (ECOFIN) held in Brussels on Tuesday. Viktor Orbán’s government is trying to put pressure on the Twenty-Seven to release 7,500 million regional funds and the 5,800 million from Hungary’s recovery plan that the EU has frozen over its rule of law violations.
But the European Union (EU) has no intention of giving in to blackmail. In fact, the Twenty-Seven assured this Tuesday that they will try to find a solution with the rest of the member states to approve aid to Kiev, which needs this expenditure to meet its most urgent needs. Although the package cannot be adopted in its entirety without Hungary, the European countries hope to come up with “an alternative” that does not require changes to European financial regulations and can therefore be approved without unanimity within the European Council.
“Unfortunately, we cannot adopt the package in its entirety, but we are not discouraged and our ambition remains to start disbursing our aid to Ukraine in early January 2023,” said Czech Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura.
At the next ministerial meeting, the twenty-seven are expected to decide on the freezing of assets to Hungary. The European Commission issued a report on this last week, recommending that the disbursement of €7,500 million should be blocked as the country “has not complied” with the 17 corrective measures demanded by Brussels, budget commissioner Johannes Hahn said.
In the same appearance, the Community Executive gave the green light to Hungary’s recovery plan, a move that encouraged optimism about a possible improvement in relations with Budapest. Of course, the European Commission has conditioned the Next Generation funds for the fulfillment of 27 milestones. These are largely measures to ensure the independence of the country’s judiciary. “If these targets are not met, there will be no payments,” summarizes Community Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis.
Meanwhile, Hungary has paralyzed numerous crucial European decisions that require unanimity, such as economic aid to Ukraine and the 15% minimum rate for multinationals.
But this situation cannot last much longer, as the European Council has to decide on the Hungarian funds before 19 December. Entering the ministerial meeting, First Vice President and Economy Minister Nadia Calviño said she expects a decision on the matter “in the coming days”. Meanwhile, Germany, France and Italy called for a review of the European Commission’s report.
Similarly, the economy commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, said he could convene a ministerial meeting next week.
Source: La Verdad
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