{"id":40798,"date":"2023-12-15T08:02:39","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T08:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=40798"},"modified":"2023-12-15T08:02:40","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T08:02:40","slug":"hungarys-pm-blocked-e50bn-aid-for-ukraine-amid-support-for-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2023\/12\/15\/hungarys-pm-blocked-e50bn-aid-for-ukraine-amid-support-for-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungary\u2019s PM blocked \u20ac50bn aid for Ukraine amid support for Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hungary\u2019s prime minister\u00a0Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u00a0has blocked a \u20ac50bn EU aid package for Ukraine, hours after leaders side-stepped his opposition to agree to open talks with Kyiv on joining the bloc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A crunch summit in Brussels broke up after a day of wrangling as the Hungarian leader refused to green light funding to help Ukraine\u2019s government over the next four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posting on X, formally known as Twitter, Orb\u00e1n wrote \u201cSummary of the nightshift: veto for the extra money to Ukraine\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will come back to the issue next year in the memo\u00a0after proper preparation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The EU\u2019s other 26 leaders agreed to come back to the debate early next year to try to thrash out an agreement on the desperately needed support for Kyiv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith 26 countries we agree. There is no agreement from\u00a0Hungary\u00a0at the moment, but I am very confident for next year,\u201d Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blockage from Hungary \u2013 Russia\u2019s closest ally in the EU \u2013 dealt a blow to Kyiv and its backers only hours after they had celebrated the bloc taking the symbolic step of\u00a0agreeing to open membership talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orb\u00e1n had also opposed starting EU accession talks, but agreed to step out of the negotiating room to allow the other EU leaders to take a consensus decision without him. He later denounced the agreement as \u201ca completely senseless, irrational and wrong decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the financial aid package, Orb\u00e1n had argued that Ukraine should not get such large amounts of money from the EU budget as it is not part of the bloc. Other leaders have assured Kyiv they could channel aid to Ukraine outside the EU budget if Hungary maintains its blockade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics have accused the Hungarian leader of holding Kyiv\u2019s survival hostage in a bid to force Brussels to release billions of euros of EU funds frozen over a rule of law dispute. In what some saw as a last-minute concession, the European Commission, the EU\u2019s executive, agreed on Wednesday to unblock \u20ac10bn of that cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another \u20ac21bn still remains out of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s grasp, but he denied that Hungary was making a link between the cash and its Ukraine stance. \u201cThat\u2019s not our style,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The row over financial aid comes at a dire time for Ukraine\u2019s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, after Ukraine\u2019s counter-offensive against Russian forces has failed to make major gains and with US President Joe Biden so far unable to get a $60bn package for Kyiv\u00a0through the US Congress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hungary\u2019s prime minister\u00a0Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u00a0has blocked a \u20ac50bn EU aid package for Ukraine, hours after leaders side-stepped his opposition to agree to open talks with Kyiv on joining the bloc. A crunch summit in Brussels broke up after a day of wrangling as the Hungarian leader refused to green light funding to help Ukraine\u2019s government over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11261,6850,5178,1904,5249,7331,6693,11399,12785,10339,159,9505,6564,12248,2264,10825,5626,2471,5342,10342,10338,5612,12187,12727,2627,3805,3174,6431,3457,5217,5350,5180,6885,6348,11331,6555,7555,6886,10353,6874],"class_list":["post-40798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-news","tag-accused","tag-aid","tag-biden","tag-brussels","tag-budget","tag-cash","tag-congress","tag-debate","tag-dispute","tag-dutch","tag-eu","tag-european","tag-european-commission","tag-frozen","tag-government","tag-hostage","tag-hungary","tag-joe-biden","tag-kyiv","tag-law","tag-mark-rutte","tag-money","tag-n","tag-package","tag-pm","tag-president","tag-prime-minister","tag-release","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-twitter","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraines-president","tag-us","tag-us-president","tag-veto","tag-viktor-orban","tag-volodymyr-zelenskiy","tag-x","tag-zelenskiy"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40799,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40798\/revisions\/40799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}