Orbán’s cabinet reveals exactly how many thousands of billions of euros Ukraine’s EU integration could cost

Balázs Orbán, the prime minister’s political director, estimated the cost of Ukraine’s EU integration to be EUR 2,500bn over several years, speaking at Monday’s Economx Money Talks 25 business conference in Budapest.

Putting the amount in context, Orbán said it was twelve times the EU budget for this year. He warned that integrating Ukraine would consume all the resources needed to meet the EU’s other challenges and weaken Hungary’s strategic position.

Orbán said that conservative estimates put the cost of rebuilding Ukraine at USD 500bn, while Ukrainian sources see that cost reaching as much as EUR 1,000bn. He added that the country would also need USD 100bn a year to operate, most of which would come from the EU.

He said the government’s nationwide survey to gauge support for Ukraine’s EU integration addressed one of the most important economic and strategic questions in recent years.

He said that Hungary has a response to the new challenges, a connectivity strategy, which is not only possible, but also politically desirable.

Customs policy is not a simple issue, because it is in the hands of Brussels, which is still trying to negotiate on the basis of the old world order. The Hungarian Government is convinced that there must be and will be an agreement between the United States and the EU, and attention will be drawn to this on an ongoing basis.

Balázs Orbán said that homogenisation, which the Hungarian government has already fought against, could also be pushed into the background. In addition, peace has also come closer, peace talks are taking place, which many people had previously considered unthinkable. If the United States really wants peace, it will be peace, and that is good news for Hungary. Finally, he stressed that the challenge will be the attack by the neo-liberal forces that are displacing the United States and moving their headquarters to Brussels. The second challenge is the EU itself, the leaders in Brussels do not feel the wind of the times, Europe is facing a series of crises, the previous course is unsustainable.

Only 4 of the top 50 tech companies in the world are European, and if the EU were the 51st member state of the US, it would be the third poorest. Europe must be able to defend itself, so the German fiscal stimulus is good for Hungary.

Read here for more news about Ukraine’s EU membership referendum in Hungary

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