EU Financial Aid To Ukraine Hinges On Delayed Funding For Hungary - Lawmaker

Muhammad Irfan Published November 12, 2022 | 11:10 AM

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th November, 2022) The European Union needs to release the delayed funding for Hungary for it to lift objections to a new multibillion financial aid package for Ukraine, Thierry Mariani, a member of the European Parliament, told Sputnik.

Hungary has provided far-reaching humanitarian assistance to conflict-torn Ukraine but refused to wave through an 18 billion euro ($18.6 billion) lifeline citing fears that the EU is taking up unsustainable debt.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock accused Prime Minister Viktor Orban this week of "playing poker" with vital funds in an attempt to obtain 13 billion Euros in budget money and COVID-19 recovery funds that the EU has withheld from Budapest over its alleged rule-of-law violations.

"Let the European funds intended for Hungary be released and Viktor Orban will grant emergency financial aid from the EU to Ukraine," Mariani, a member of the Identity and Democracy Group in the European Parliament, said.

The decision to unlock financial aid to Ukraine needs unanimous backing of all 27 EU countries. Mariani said that the EU itself risked backsliding on democracy if it were to twist Hungary's arm on financial matters.

"Without this rule of unanimity on financial questions, Europe would no longer be democratic; small countries would no longer be able to defend themselves, it would be the end of nation states and the triumph of a European Union that wants to impose everything," he warned.

Mariani accused Berlin and Paris of giving active support to Brussels as it ramps up pressure on member states that do not toe its line by stripping them of funding over perceived "illiberalism," while donating generously to Ukraine, an outsider.

"Ukraine becomes de facto the 28th member state of the EU, totally financed by the EU which itself is entering recession and is unable to recover from the COVID crisis. Ukraine will cost European citizens much more than COVID," he predicted.