“The decision still needs to ferment a little so that we will make that decision in an extraordinary meeting in January, very soon,” the president told Lithuanian journalists in Brussels on Friday morning.
Community leaders, who met late into the night, managed to break Hungary’s veto on the start of Ukraine’s membership talks on Thursday, but there was no agreement on four years of support for Kyiv.
Commenting on the negotiations held in Brussels, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called on the EU to unblock all the billions of funds for his country so that it might consider revoking its veto on further aid to Ukraine.
On the eve of the meeting, the European Commission (EC) unblocked 10 billion. frozen EU funding to Hungary following it implemented judicial reform, which, according to the EC, eliminated the shortcomings of judicial independence. Critics say this is an attempt to buy favor from Budapest.
The Commission, G. Nausėda and the leaders of other countries denied such assessments.
However, approximately 21 billion EUR 100 million earmarked for Hungary is still not available until the country implements certain reforms.
“I have always said that if someone wants to change the budget law, and they want it for several reasons, this is a great opportunity for Hungary to clearly show that it should get what it deserves. Not half, then a quarter, but she must get everything,” V. Orban said in an interview with Hungarian Public Radio on Friday morning.
When asked if such statements can be called blackmail, the President of Lithuania said that “whatever word we choose, Hungary is certainly opposing itself to the Community”.
“I like clear rules. Money in both Lithuania, Hungary and Belgium must be used according to its purpose, in other words, the country must fulfill certain requirements in order to be able to use the money”, said G. Nausėda.
“After all, we also have problems with part of the money, because we are not implementing the tax reform. But it must not be connected with Ukraine, Middle East, or any other problems,” he added.
Support for Ukraine for the next four should consist of 17 billion. EUR grants and 33 billion euro loans. Kyiv needs this money to support its war-torn economy.
According to diplomatic sources, the meeting considered sharing Hungary’s share of the grants, but French President Emmanuel Macron said this might send a negative message regarding Community unity.
As an alternative, it was also considered to provide support to Ukraine only for the year 2024, not from the general budget, but from the 26 EU countries that support it. However, it was finally decided to extend the negotiations in January.
“What we might do, so to speak, examine the soil, as far as we have a consensus, we did that yesterday, we established that the position is what it is. During that time, we will still find opportunities to look for other solutions and have options A, B, C”, said G. Nausėda.
The leader of Lithuania emphasized that in the coming weeks “things may happen that may change Hungary’s opinion as well”.
“That’s why you don’t need to break it by force. I think that the most important thing is that Ukraine receives the money on time, so no one is going to wait until March or April,” said the president.
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2024-07-17 04:27:32
