BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union (EU) talks on giving Ukraine 50 billion euros ($54 billion) in financial aid have been getting “more complicated” since Hungary has not been flexible ahead of next week’s summit on the matter, a senior EU official said on Friday.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban blocked a revision of the EU budget that includes the Ukraine aid at a summit in December. EU leaders will try again to reach a deal on the package at another summit next Thursday.
Orban’s government has a strained relationship with Ukraine. The Hungarian leader has maintained close ties to Russia and withheld his support when EU leaders gave the green light to open EU membership talks with Kyiv at the December summit.
“The negotiation is getting a bit more complicated … the position of Hungary has not really been flexible on this,” said the senior EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official, who is involved in preparations for the summit, added there was an increasing level of frustration with Hungary among the other EU member states which want to give more aid to Ukraine.
The official said some ideas proposed by Orban – such as having aid to Ukraine subject to unanimous approval every year – were not acceptable to other EU members.
“No member state wants to embark on a situation where you would have to go through unanimity to deliver support to Ukraine,” the official said.
($1 = 0.9206 euros)
(Reporting by Andrew Gray; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
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