EU financial aid to Ukraine depends on delayed funding for Hungary
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Hungary, once again, is in the way of a new multibillion-dollar financial aid package for Ukraine.
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Commissioner Johannes Hahn joked to reporters: "Hungary is the author of this bestseller 'How to make Friends'." (European Union, 2022)
A member of the European Parliament, Thierry Mariani, told Sputnik that the European Union must release the delayed funding for Hungary in order for it to drop opposition to a new multibillion-dollar financial aid package for Ukraine.
Ukraine has received extensive humanitarian aid from Hungary, but the country refused to extend a new 18 billion euro ($18.6 billion) sugarcoated package out of concern that the EU was assuming unmanageable debt.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock accused Prime Minister Viktor Orban this week of "playing poker" with funds in an attempt to obtain 13 billion euros in budget money and COVID-19 recovery funds that the EU kept from Budapest over its alleged rule-of-law violations.
Read next: Hungary to oppose EU joint borrowing plan to aid Ukraine: FM
"Let the European funds intended for Hungary be released and Viktor Orban will grant emergency financial aid from the EU to Ukraine," Mariani, a member of the Identity and Democracy Group in the European Parliament, said.
The agreement of all 27 EU nations is required for the decision to release financial assistance to Ukraine. If the EU were to exert financial pressure on Hungary, according to Mariani, it would run the risk of regressing its commitment to democracy.
"Without this rule of unanimity on financial questions, Europe would no longer be democratic; small countries would no longer be able to defend themselves, it would be the end of nation states and the triumph of a European Union that wants to impose everything," he warned.
Read next: Hungary PM: Sanctions on Russia made things worse
Mariani accused Berlin and Paris of actively supporting Brussels as it increases pressure on member states that defy it by cutting off money due to perceived "illiberalism", while liberally supporting an outsider in Ukraine.
"Ukraine becomes de facto the 28th member state of the EU, totally financed by the EU which itself is entering recession and is unable to recover from the COVID crisis. Ukraine will cost European citizens much more than COVID," he predicted.
