On 1 February, a summit of EU leaders will take place in Brussels to consider providing Ukraine with €50bn in aid over the next four years. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán continues to oppose this decision, The Guardian writes.
Officials' aides complained that Orbán has not changed his position since December, when he first blocked the funds. One of the officials, speaking anonymously, said they were "really at a crossroads".
The €50 billion is financial assistance to Ukraine from the EU budget. This includes €17 billion in direct aid, and the rest is loans that Kyiv was supposed to receive over the next four years.
To approve the allocation of these funds, amendments to the already approved EU budget are required, and this requires the consent of all members of the bloc.
Diplomats in Brussels stress that Ukraine will not run out of funding for military equipment and ammunition as this comes through individual member states through the European Peace Facility. But they are worried about liquidity in the Ukrainian economy and the signal a lack of unity will give to Putin.
This EU fund, combined with support from the International Monetary Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, has allowed the salaries of teachers, doctors and soldiers to be paid, cash machines to continue working and buildings to be reconstructed where possible in the past two years.
A final push on Wednesday to win over Orbán at a meeting of EU representatives appeared to have failed.
One source said the Hungarian representative, who spoke first, told counterparts Hungary was “working intensively and constructively towards a solution that would be acceptable for everyone within the MFF [multi-annual financial framework]”.
Earlier, Viktor Orbán repeated a position Budapest has articulated over the past days: that it is now open to providing Ukraine aid from the EU budget, as long as a unanimous decision would be taken every year to allow assistance to continue – effectively giving Budapest an annual veto.
On Wednesday morning, ambassadors of member states suggested holding annual debates rather than voting on the disbursement of funds to Ukraine. In the draft of the formal agreement, the European Commission commits to reviewing the implementation of the funding mechanism on an annual basis. On this basis, "the European Council will hold an annual debate on the implementation of the mechanism in order to provide guidance on the EU's approach".
It is not known whether Orbán will agree to this. According to journalists, officials have developed a plan B, according to which the 26 member states will agree on money outside the EU budget. Raising money, a mix of loans and public contributions, is thus more complicated, in some cases requiring parliamentary approval.
"It's not the end of the world, but the situation is very difficult," the source said.