EU leaders at the summit failed to convince Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to compromise on the issue of a €90 billion loan to Ukraine, and Orbán stated that blocking the loan to Ukraine is not related to elections, Politico reports, citing sources, writes UNN.
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According to four diplomats and officials, "EU leaders failed to convince Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to drop his opposition to a €90 billion loan to fund Ukraine's war effort."
"A 90-minute discussion of the loan failed to create a clear path to an agreement," according to four diplomats and officials.
According to one diplomat, European Council President António Costa sharply criticized Orbán's behavior as "unacceptable" and a violation of the terms of cooperation that underpin the EU. Costa noted that no leader had ever before crossed "this red line."
Speaking at the meeting, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán dismissed suggestions that his blocking of the approval of a €90 billion loan to Ukraine was related to upcoming elections, calling it "absolutely unfounded," said an official familiar with the negotiations who wished to remain anonymous.
Orbán accused his fellow leaders of caring more about Ukraine than Hungary and stated that it was an "existential issue" for Budapest.
Hungary stated that it had kept its word, as the Druzhba gas pipeline was functioning at the time the decision was made in December regarding the loan to Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also spoke at the summit, who, as reported by RFE/RL editor Rikard Jozwiak, "in his address to EU leaders did not attack or even mention Orbán, nor did he talk about Ukraine's EU membership in 2027." "This is clearly a measured speech among all the recent political sparing," Jozwiak pointed out on X.