PM Orbán vetoed EU’s EUR 50 bn for Ukraine, said Hungarian’s money go to Kyiv
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Hungary did not take part in the decision at the EU summit on starting Ukraine’s EU accession process and vetoed 50 billion euros in financial aid for the country, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public radio on Friday.
Orbán vetoed EUR 50 bn for Ukraine’s help
In the interview recorded in Brussels, Orbán said that starting accession talks with Ukraine had been a “bad decision” and its potential drawbacks should not be paid by Hungarians.
He said he had tried to convince the other EU leaders not to put the issue of Ukraine’s accession negotiations on the agenda.
Orbán said the decision was not taken at the right time and he had tried to persuade EU leaders to return to the issue “when Ukraine is ready to negotiate”.
“I struggled for eight hours to explain to them that helping badly is worse than not helping at all,” he said.
“It was impossible to convince them,” he said. The EU leaders had “two serious arguments” that he had to take into account. “One is that there are 26 of them, and I’m alone, and they wanted to give Ukraine … encouragement to continue the war, and they asked me not to block them from doing so,” he said, adding that their decisive argument was that Hungary would not lose anything, given that the final word on Ukraine’s membership was up to national parliaments, including Hungary’s.
“If we don’t want Ukraine to become a member of the European Union, then the Hungarian parliament will vote against it,” he said.
The prime minister said a long process lay ahead before the issue would reach the parliaments and there were around 75 occasions when the Hungarian government could halt the process.
“If anything harms Hungary’s interests during the talks, I will stop it,” he added.
Noting that the other EU leaders were determined to allow accession negotations to begin, he said: “Hungary does not want to take part in this bad decision.” He said they could go it alone, “and that’s why I left the room”.
Meanwhile, Orbán said he had to veto 50 billion euros in aid for Ukraine, and an extraordinary summit was likely to be held at some point in February, when they would return to the issue.
The prime minister said that the EU wanted to give the money of member states, including the money of the Hungarians, to Ukraine, but he vetoed this. He noted that a unanimous decision was needed, which Hungary withheld.
“I had to veto the 50 billion … they had no choice other than to take note that Hungary vetoed it, so there is no money,” he said.
Bad decision
The decision to start Ukraine’s EU accession talks was a “bad” one with possible drawbacks, he said, adding that Hungary would “not pay the financial and economic costs”.
Orbán said the EU decision-makers “must bear the costs of this decision”.
EU member states, he said, wanted to “go in this direction quarreling” and Hungary had the chance to warn that “this is a bad decision”.
Orbán said Hungary could “stop this process later”, adding that the final decision on Ukraine’s membership would be made by the Hungarian parliament.
“If the interests of Hungarian farmers must be protected, then Hungary will apply the handbrake; let there be no doubt about that,” he said.
The prime minister said the EU was used to making bad decisions, and he listed the 2008 financial crisis, migration, and its decision over the war in Ukraine to go “towards war and sanctions” rather than in the direction of peace.
Orbán said Hungary had no interest in the EU managing itself by taking out loans to finance aid to Ukraine, adding that the bloc’s money was structured in a way that what was paid in to the budget was then spent.
“We made an exception once and came out of it badly,” he said, referring to joint borrowing for financing pandemic recovery. “Not everyone was allowed to access this money in the same way.” “This shouldn’t happen again,” Orbán said.
The prime minister called the situation in Ukraine “bad”, adding that the war should not be fed more money but stopped.
Ceasefire and peace negotiations
“A ceasefire and peace negotiations are needed,” he said. The start of Ukraine’s accession talks “in itself won’t harm Hungary’s interests for now”, but financing Ukraine with loans “is already an immediate harm to interests”.
Orbán said that change was needed in Brussels. “The fact that they were messing with Hungary this way showed that Brussels had the inclination to abuse its powers,” he said.
We do not even need Parliament – our Politicians can rule by Decree!
Re. cheap labour … Mr. Wilders won the Dutch elections, much to the excitement of our Politicians. Spoke to some Dutch Wilders voters. They were hoping that he, as a Eurosceptic, would do something against the cheap labour coming from Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Romania. Go figure and be careful what you wish for.
Lastly, very curious what will happen when, sometime in the future, Hungary becomes a net contributor to the EU. What position would the Politicians take? “Our money!”?
Hungary – you don’t belong in the EU or NATO. Go cozy up to your communist friends in Asia and the commie ghosts in Russia. Hungary, the world sees you as Putin’s lapdog. Why? Because you keep voting for the pudgy little poodle, the leader of the mangalica mafia, the Viktator.
Hungary held capitalism in its right hand and communism in its left, pulled all the good things out, looked at them and said, “We don’t need these, but we’ll keep the crap.”
Kocsonya Kiraly how can you be so unreasonable? Most people make a budget and try not to outspend. The 50 billion in question would have to be borrowed. Then there is interest to be added on to the principal sum. It is possible that the 50+ billion may turn out to be 60 billion that your children has to repay.
There have been real disasters in the EU. Presently there will be a need to help France with flood relief. Since Ukraine is not an EU member, EU countries’ needs must be supplied first.
You, Mr. Kocsonya Kiraly are gambling with the future of the Hungarian children.
Maria, when Hungary starts to pay in more than it takes out, then you can talk about budgets! It is not “Hungary’s money”, unless you want to call all of the money coming to Hungary for the last two decades, “Frances Money” or “Germany’s Money” or “Dutch Money” and on and on.
One wonders how patient the EU will be with Hungary and more so, if there are calls for sanctions or even just asking Hungary, ‘do you want to leave the EU?’
Result would be many working age & youth desperate (like Brits post Brexit) to emigrate &/or get other EU residency, if not, they will return to Hungary and be a little bit upset with their future vs. ageing voters?
Meanwhile non EU/EEA working age & international students immigration is increasing, to help support budgets and keeping working age afloat.
Happening across the world, political parties using gerontocracy or pensioner populism vs. younger voters & immigrants.
Hungary, like other EU countries, pays yearly required membership. So far, Hungary has not received a penny in the last 3 years. There is nothing to stop individual war monger countries financially supporting Ukraine. The fuss made of Hungary’s veto is ridiculous. This fuss reflects the lack of sovereignty of EU member countries.
Oh Maria, there you go again, giving cover to your heros in the country where you do not live. Hungary takes more than it pays, simple math that can be checked easily. Therefore, Hungary is “owed” nothing, but does have an obligation, as the smallest contributor to the budget, to get on board when EVERY other country is trying to stop Russia from showing up at OUR borders. Victor is a spoiled child who cannot believe someone stands up to him, since everyone in his bubble bows down to him. Stay on your side of the Atlantic!
The content of most E-mails shows the reason why Hungary was governed by outside forces through history. Most writers are ready to cede sovereignty to EU and globalists. The EU fans’ attitude enforces the fact that the brave people that rose against the Hapsburgs in 1948 or the young people that rose up against Soviet rule in 1956, wasted their lives. Most E-mail correspondents do not deserve their sacrifice.
Yes, I do live in North America. My compatriots appreciate independence and self-government. Not one of our citizens want to cede our sovereignty. People here are proud of the country. People honor the sacrifice our young people made to liberate Europe in WWI and WWII. None of our citizens want to cede power to a foreign country or group like most correspondents.
Merry Christmas!!!
Maria, then why does Victor cede power to the Russians when they decimated the country for decades including 1956 (how dare you bring that up now when your hero Victor will not show up in Budapest for the anniversary)? If you love Hungary so much, move back, in the meantime, keep your propoganda to yourself. It is 2023, not 1990.
Trading with Russia does not result in loss of sovereignty. However, it ensures energy supply for the population for the winter month. Winters are usually cold in Canada, believe me, we all appreciate the fact that our country can supply our need.
If you feel guilty about using energy from Russia, spend a winter in Germany and never feel warm between November to April.