Hungary considers it important to closely monitor the utilisation of the funding disbursed to Ukraine, Finance Minister Mihaly Varga said in Luxembourg on Friday.
Talking to Hungarian journalists after a meeting of the council of European Union finance ministers (ECOFIN), Varga said the European Commission must strive to ensure that the 50 billion euros allocated to support Ukraine’s reconstruction and reforms would be spent in a disciplined manner and used exclusively for the purposes they were provided for by the EU.
“Hungary’s position is that the European Investment Bank must not become an instrument for sending weapons to Ukraine; the bank should contribute to strengthening Europe’s defence capabilities,” the minister said. “Financial aid should serve good purposes … Hungary continues to refuse to support sending weapons to Ukraine,” Varga said.
Meanwhile, he said the Hungarian government had so far spent a total of 700 billion forints (EUR ) on protecting the Schengen borders, and “expects to receive EU financing aimed at reinforcing the border and ensuring further protection.”
Concerning the EU’s recently adopted migration and asylum pact, Varga said it was unacceptable for Hungary. “The pact could be used for blackmail and it is obviously the purpose,” he said.
Under the pact, EU members could be fined 20,000 euros if they refused to accommodate a migrant, which he said was “financial blackmail”. “All possible means must be used to revise and scrap the pact,” said Varga.
