Hungary Open to Lifting Ukraine Aid Veto If EU Unfreezes Funds
- Prime minister’s aide wants bloc to unfreeze full €30 billion
- Official says other option is approving a year of aid for Kyiv
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Hungary is prepared to lift its veto on a massive European Union funding proposal for Ukraine in return for billions in financing the bloc has been withholding from Budapest over democratic backsliding, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief political adviser said.
The government in Budapest is holding up a four-year €50 billion ($54 billion) support package for Kyiv that would start next year as part of a broader fight over the EU’s budget at a meeting of leaders starting Thursday. The remarks from Balazs Orban, who’s unrelated to the premier, suggest Hungary is seeking to extract a heavy price for its consent that may be hard for the rest of the bloc to accept.