Hungarian PM blocks $55B EU aid for Ukraine

Budapest, The Gulf Observer: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has blocked nearly $55 billion in EU aid for Ukraine, after leaders side-stepped his opposition to agree to open talks with Kiev on joining the bloc.

A crunch summit in Brussels broke up after a day of wrangling as the Hungarian leader refused to greenlight funding to help prop up Ukraine’s government over the next four years.

“Summary of the nightshift: veto for the extra money to Ukraine,” Orban wrote on social media.

The EU’s other 26 leaders agreed to return to the debate at a fresh meeting early next year to try to thrash out an agreement on the desperately needed support for Kyiv.

“With 26 countries, we agree. There is no agreement from Hungary at the moment, but I am very confident for next year,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.

The blockage from the Hungarian leader dealt a blow to Kiev and its backers only hours after they had celebrated the bloc taking the symbolic step of agreeing to open membership talks.

Orban had also opposed starting talks, but agreed to step out of the negotiating room to allow the other EU leaders to take a consensus decision without him.

In a video posted to social media, the veteran leader denounced “a completely senseless, irrational and wrong decision” but complained that “26 other countries have insisted this decision be taken”.