EU member states have failed to agree on an “extended long-term budget” to provide billions of euros in additional aid packages to Ukraine.
– Hungary is vetoing any money for Ukraine, laments Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
According to TT, the leaders of the other 26 countries have agreed to donate another 17 billion euros to Ukraine in the budget and to provide another 33 billion euros in loans. However, Hungary is not interested in supporting further aid packages of this kind, so Ukraine will have to wait for new EU billions.
– I have no reason to believe that this will change tomorrow, and therefore we cannot take any decisions on a review of the EU budget, Kristersson continued.
The majority of EU leaders want to continue supporting Ukraine financially until 2027, and they hope to convince Hungary at a special meeting in January.
Sweden has donated 30 billion
– The hope is that everyone can get behind an agreement. That is the ambition. If that proves impossible, then 26 countries have expressed a common desire for long-term support for Ukraine. Then we will simply have to look at other methods, Ulf Kristersson continues.
Recently, we also reported that EU leaders had decided to start negotiations on Ukraine’s membership in the bloc – an announcement that is seen as a major victory for Ukraine’s staunchly pro-EU President Volodomyr Zelenskyj.
According to the Swedish government, Sweden has so far donated aid packages worth about SEK 30 billion (~2.7 billion euros) to Ukraine since the start of the war.
