Disagreements within the European Union could derail the provision of financial assistance to Ukraine – Financial Times

Disagreements within the European Union regarding the bloc’s budget are jeopardizing the allocation of 50 billion euros to Ukraine as part of a four-year aid program, the decision for which is expected to be made at the community’s summit on December 14-15.

This information reported by Financial Times.

According to the article, citing representatives involved in the discussions, EU member states “are far from reaching an agreement on replenishing the bloc’s joint budget, including the 50 billion euros for Ukraine, ahead of the Brussels summit.” One official mentioned that achieving a budget agreement would be “very, very difficult.” These funds are essential for Kyiv to maintain solvency until 2027.

The inability to approve long-term funding, as well as the proposal to allocate 20 billion euros in military aid to Ukraine over the next four years, “will be a blow to Kyiv following the failure of its summer counteroffensive and growing concerns about weakening Western support,” the article states.

“A moment of truth has arrived,” an EU representative remarked.

According to the FT, Brussels’ funding for Ukraine has turned into “a political football within the context of broader debates about EU budget priorities” due to the Commission’s decision to bundle support for Kyiv in the proposal along with other funding requests to replenish the budget for 2021-2027.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban previously suggested excluding the issue of starting negotiations with Ukraine on its accession to the community from the agenda of the EU summit. He explained that Budapest is against such negotiations because it believes Ukraine is not ready for this step, and the consequences of such a move have not been analyzed.

In 2023, the European Commission will implement a macro-financial assistance program to Ukraine worth 18 billion euros. On June 20, the European Commission urged EU countries to make additional contributions to the community’s budget for the period from 2024 to 2027, which is necessary to approve the budget support program for Ukraine amounting to 50 billion euros for the next four years. As previously stated by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, at the EU summit in late October in Brussels, the idea of allocating additional budget contributions from EU countries to Ukraine was blocked by Belgium, Hungary, Slovakia, and several other states. Consequently, long-term aid programs for Ukraine from the EU are still pending approval.