European Commission Vice-President for Economic Affairs Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said on Monday that the European Commission is currently looking for alternative solutions to offer Ukraine additional financial assistance of 50 billion euros if Hungary continues to block this package, reports EFE agency citing Agerpres.

The provision of this aid, which will be distributed in installments over the next four years, involves a review of the EU’s multiannual budget for the period 2021-2027 and is on the agenda of the European summit, which will be held on Thursday and Friday. .

If by that time the European Commission and other EU countries do not reach an agreement with Hungary on aid to Ukraine, it will be necessary to urgently find a “plan B”, said Dombrovskis on the Latvian public radio station, without giving details.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán opposes such aid for Ukraine in the context of the European Commission blocking Hungary’s access to cohesion funds and the European post-pandemic recovery plan after disputes with Budapest over the rule of law.

The Commission recently approved Hungary’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), which provides funds from the post-pandemic recovery plan, and will provide Budapest with the first tranche of €920 million from the REPowerEU supplementary European plan. accelerating the transition to clean energy. But cohesion funds are still blocked by Brussels because of a new conditionality mechanism that allows the European Commission to withhold funds from EU countries it believes are violating the rule of law. “There are clear conditions that Hungary must fulfill in order to unlock this funding,” Commissioner Dombrovskis confirmed on Monday.

Prime Minister Orbán, the only European leader who has maintained close ties with Russia since it launched military aggression against Ukraine, accuses Brussels of blocking European funds belonging to Hungary for purely political reasons, namely the conservative orientation of the Hungarian government and the measures adopted by it against illegal migration and the LGBT community.

Last year, Budapest also objected to 18 billion euros in macro-financial aid offered to Ukraine by the EU bloc for the current year, but eventually waived the veto after an agreement with Brussels to partially unblock European funds held by Hungary – an agreement that was not implemented, later the European the commission put forward new conditions to Hungary – and after the idea of ​​a solution was floated in Brussels to bypass Hungary’s veto.

Such a decision can be considered now. Thus, if Budapest vetoes new financial aid for Ukraine, then Brussels can ask the other 26 EU member states to provide each of them with their own financial aid package, all of which together will form the package originally requested by the European Commission. 50 billion euros for the next four years.

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