{"id":20261,"date":"2023-12-16T09:16:20","date_gmt":"2023-12-16T07:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/?p=20261"},"modified":"2023-12-16T16:24:18","modified_gmt":"2023-12-16T14:24:18","slug":"hungary-blocks-54-billion-eu-funding-for-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/hungary-blocks-54-billion-eu-funding-for-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungary blocks $54 billion EU funding for Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hungary\u2019s Prime Minister Viktor Orban blocked the European Union\u2019s crucial military aid package for Ukraine hours after EU leaders agreed to open membership talks for Kyiv. Orban was the only EU leader to veto a resolution seeking to approve $54 billion in funding for Ukraine.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaders of 27 European Union states gathered in Brussels on December 15, 2023, to discuss the prospects of Ukraine\u2019s membership into the bloc and to approve funding in financial support for Ukraine. While 26 member states agreed to provide more than $54 billion in funding to Ukraine over the next four years, Hungarian leaders refused to greenlight the resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said that all but one of the EU\u2019s 27 countries backed the package of financial support for Ukraine. \u201cOne leader couldn\u2019t agree on this,\u201d Michel said at a late night 3 a.m. news conference at the end of the meeting, referring to Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary. He said leaders would reconvene early next month to try to reach a unanimous agreement, which is required for the plan to go through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSummary of the nightshift: veto for the extra money to Ukraine,\u201d Orban, one of the closest allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the EU, wrote on his social media account. EU leaders postponed their next meeting on the budget until January, after seven hours of discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several European Union leaders left the meeting urging for another summit on the same topic shortly. \u201cWe still have some time, Ukraine is not out of money in the next few weeks,\u201d Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters as he stressed that another summit should be arranged soon.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"President<\/a>
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressing the participants of the European Council. (Image Credit: Presidential Office of Ukraine)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe agreed with the 26 countries. Victor Orban, Hungary, was not yet able to do that. I am confident we can get a deal early next year. We are thinking of late January,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo stressed that the financial support was vital. \u201cIt is just as important that Ukraine has the means to continue the war and rebuild its country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orban had been indicating for weeks to block Kyiv\u2019s request to join the European Union and funding. His decision comes as a blow to the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been trying to gather financial support with marginal success. Zelenskyy traveled to Washington last week to persuade U.S. lawmakers to approve more funding for Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelenskyy also came face to face with Orban in Argentina last week, where both leaders were present to attend the swearing-in for Argentina\u2019s new president, Javier Milei. Zelenskyy was seen having an informal discussion with Orban at the sidelines of the ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I asked him to tell me one reason, not three, five, 10, tell me one reason,” as for why Kyiv should not be a part of the European Union, Zelenskyy said about Orban at a press conference in Oslo following his trip to Argentina. \u201cI am still waiting for (an) answer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Ukrainian<\/a>
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy attending a European Union ministers summit in Kyiv, Ukraine, on October 2, 2023. (Image Credit: Twitter\/@ZelenskyyUa)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hungary\u2019s Prime Minister Viktor Orban blocked the European Union\u2019s crucial military aid package for Ukraine hours after EU leaders agreed to open membership talks for Kyiv. Orban was the only EU leader to veto a resolution seeking to approve $54 billion in funding for Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,1],"tags":[265,75,24,357,304,5,219,22],"class_list":["post-20261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-news","tag-belgium","tag-conflict","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-hungary","tag-military","tag-netherlands","tag-ukraine"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Hungary-Prime-Minister-Viktor-Orban.jpg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-5gN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20261"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20264,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20261\/revisions\/20264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}