EU countries have offered Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban an annual debate on aid to Ukraine, but no yearly veto, in a bid to get a deal on providing 50 billion euros for Kyiv, officials said Wednesday.
The bloc’s leaders are set for a make-or-break summit in Brussels on Thursday to try to get Orban to drop his opposition to the desperately needed funding for Ukraine.
Orban — Russia’s closest ally in the European Union — sparked fury from his 26 EU counterparts by thwarting a deal in December to keep financial aid flowing to Kyiv nearly two years into Moscow’s invasion.
The Hungarian populist has been accused of holding Ukraine’s future hostage in a bid to blackmail Brussels into releasing billions of euros in frozen EU funds for Budapest.
EU officials have been trying to thrash out a compromise with Hungary to get agreement on the four-year package for Ukraine as part of a broader overhaul of the bloc’s budget.
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Budapest has said Orban could give his approval if he is given the chance to impose a veto again each year.
But his EU counterparts have called that a “red line” they are not willing to cede and have instead proposed only an annual “debate” on the subject.
A high-ranking EU official said it was “one step towards Hungary” but there was “still a problem”.
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“We have reached a stage where it is for leaders to solve it, especially on the Hungarian side,” the official said.
If they cannot convince Orban to drop his opposition, EU leaders have pledged to club together as 26 to get the aid to Ukraine.
But with Kyiv facing possible budget shortfalls by spring, that option would take more time to put in place and likely cover aid for only one year.
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Facing down Orban, a veteran of numerous run-ins with Brussels, will not be easy and the political arm-wrestling in Brussels is set to last for hours.
Mounting frustration at Hungary’s role as spoiler has seen calls grow for other leaders to unleash the EU’s Article 7 and strip Budapest of its voting rights.
That would take unanimity from all the 26 other leaders, and few have been willing to push publicly for the option just yet.
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