BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union is broadly supportive of a plan to support Ukraine with 50 billion euros over the next four years, EU leaders said on Friday, although it will take a month of December for the 27 EU member states to agree on the details.
In June, the European Commission proposed allocating 50 billion euros to Ukraine for 2024-2027 as part of a review of the bloc’s budgets, which EU countries hope to focus on. agreement by December.
“There is a strong consensus that we need more money for Ukraine, there is almost unanimity for that,” said Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.
“But there is very little agreement on how we would find the money, except for efficiency gains. I think we will have an agreement by December,” he added.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Thursday he wanted the proposed financial aid to Ukraine to be better justified, while his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico cited corruption in Ukraine to express his reservations .
Neither prime minister has categorically rejected the proposal.
“What I can say is that both of them did not refuse the opportunity to provide aid to Ukraine, even for a long period,” Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said on Friday.
“The question is what kind of aid and how it is used, how can we be sure, how can the European Union be sure that this aid is used effectively. This is the type of discussion we had yesterday “, he added.
EU officials expect Viktor Orban to change his mind on providing additional aid to Ukraine if the European Commission releases part of the funds Hungary is expected to receive from the EU’s recovery fund. EU, currently frozen due to rule of law issues in the country.
A draft declaration by European leaders, due to be adopted on Friday, says the EU “will continue to provide strong financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine and its people, for as long as necessary.” .
EU leaders will also ask the European Commission to more quickly present a proposal, initially planned last July, on how to use frozen Russian state assets to help rebuild Ukraine after war destruction. .
Overall EU aid to Ukraine amounts to almost 83 billion euros since the Russian invasion began in February 2022, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.
(Reporting Jan Strupczewski, Phil Blenkinsop, Bart Meijer, Tassilo Hummel and Marine Strauss; French version Lina Golovnya, editing by Kate Entringer)
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