EU leaders have failed to agree on a support package of around 50 billion euros for Ukraine. This is what outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte said. After hours of meetings at the EU summit in Brussels, Hungary remains obstructive.
Government leaders will continue discussing support for Ukraine in January. Rutte thinks ‘we will reach an agreement’, the outgoing Prime Minister said in the night from Thursday to Friday after hours of deliberation.
The EU summit got off to a flying start earlier Thursday with an unexpected agreement on opening accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. That was considered to be the hardest hit in advance, because Hungary seemed determined to block it. But Prime Minister Viktor Orbán saved the real resistance until the negotiations on the increase in the EU budget.
The other 26 EU countries want to allocate another 17 billion euros in grants and 33 billion in favorable loans to Ukraine over the next four years. They would have an extra 4 billion euros left for other important matters, such as managing migration.
‘It’s a shame’
Apart from the extra money for Ukraine, the Netherlands actually did not want an increase in the EU budget at all. But Rutte believes this ‘minor damage’ is defensible. According to the outgoing Prime Minister, the increase would cost the Netherlands ’50, 60, 70 million per year’ – ‘that almost disappears into the folds’. Moreover, a large part of the money would be intended for migration, an important point for the Netherlands.
The agreements of the 26 are in principle set when they meet again in January to get Hungary on board, say EU diplomats. They do not want to discuss the compromise reached again so as not to have to redo the negotiations again.
Rutte cannot exactly explain why Orbán would agree. ‘It’s an estimate. And that estimate is that you need just a little more time.’ The Hungarian Prime Minister cannot in good conscience fail twice in one evening, EU sources suggest. He might be more accommodating in a month. It is still unclear exactly when the new summit in January will be held. “But we have some time,” says Rutte. ‘It is not the case that Ukraine will immediately run out of money.’
‘Unexpected’
Rutte considers himself fortunate that it has at least been agreed that Ukraine can start EU accession talks. ‘I didn’t expect that this morning, to be honest. When we stood here, I was still afraid that neither would work today.’ According to Rutte, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suggested that Orbán should leave the room for a while so that the rest could agree to the talks. “At one point he had to go to the toilet, I think, and then we were able to make the decision,” Rutte says with a stony face. But even without Orbán, the decision is valid and taken on behalf of the entire EU, Rutte emphasizes. “He wasn’t there at that moment, so strictly speaking he didn’t have to say yes, but he didn’t block it either.” (ANP)
2023-12-15 03:11:15
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