Hungary wants Brussels to clarify need for more money from member states

Hungary wants the European Commission to clarify why member states are being asked to make more financial contributions to Ukraine, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office said on Thursday.

Responding to a European Commission proposal for member states to contribute another EUR 50 billion in support for Ukraine, Gergely Gulyás told a regular government press briefing that the government wanted to know whether the EC had reviewed why it had exceeded its planned spending and what sort of resources it had utilised differently than originally planned.

The additional contribution is especially “comical” in the case of member states that have yet to receive their share of funds from the new seven-year budget, such as Hungary and Poland, Gulyás said.

Asked if he believed that the reason why Brussels was not approving the funds for Hungary was because it had promised that money to Ukraine, Gulyás said the “cabinet can imagine anything given the commission’s political resistance against Hungary“.