2023-11-08 22:00:34
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (here, October 26, in Brussels) is blocking European aid of 50 billion euros to Ukraine. YVES HERMAN/REUTERS
DECRYPTION – Viktor Orban is blackmailing aid to Ukraine to obtain blocked funds from the European Union.
Negotiations are going well to obtain the release of billions of euros in European funds for Hungary and Poland, blocked for a year for non-respect of the rule of law and certain fundamental rights. Colossal sums are at stake. For Poland, this involves 76 billion euros from cohesion funds over the period 2021-2027 and 35 billion from the post-Covid recovery plan. Or around 3% of GDP each year. For Hungary, to the 22 billion from the cohesion policy are added 5.8 billion from the recovery plan, or 4.3% of GDP per year.
Deprived of this windfall, the two countries are working to unlock it, in very different ways. The Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, who went to shake hands with Vladimir Putin in Beijing last month, is once again brandishing his right of veto over the approval of an extension to the European Union budget which notably provides for 50 billion euros in aid to Ukraine. The Spanish Presidency of the Council of the Union…
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