EU commissioner assures Ukraine will receive €90bn in EU aid despite Hungary's position
The European Union will provide Ukraine with €90 billion regardless of whether Hungary supports the decision, European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said following a meeting of the EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council in Brussels on 10 March.
Dombrovskis said he is convinced that the European Union will keep its promise to provide Ukraine with €90 billion in 2026-2027.
"We will deliver on this loan one way or another," he said confidently.
The commissioner recalled that the EU's intention was "to start providing this funding in April".
"So from that point of view, it is getting urgent because we are now already in the first half of March, actually, to finalise this work. So we continue intensive engagement," he noted.
He stressed that this is not the first time the EU has faced similar difficulties with Hungary, which blocked previous financial support packages and sanctions packages.
"At the end of the day, we managed always to unblock this situation, and I'm hopeful that's going to be the case also in this time," Dombrovskis said.
He did not specify exactly how the European Commission plans to lift Hungary's veto on this decision.
Dombrovskis said the Council of the EU has already approved amendments to the regulation on the Ukraine support loan and to the Ukraine Facility.
"We work now with Ukrainian authorities to deliver all other necessary documents, like financing strategy, memorandum of understanding, and so on and so forth. So the only outstanding piece of legislation is amendments to the MFF regulation, and that is needed for the Commission to be able to go to the markets and actually to borrow and then provide this funding to Ukraine," he explained.
Last month, Hungary also blocked the adoption of the EU's 20th Russia sanctions package and prevented the allocation of a €90 billion EU loan to Ukraine, demanding the resumption of Russian oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline.
On 10 March, the Hungarian parliament approved a resolution refusing to support Ukraine's accession to the EU and opposing further funding of its military needs by EU countries.