Hungary may lift its veto on allocation of €500 million from EU fund to help Ukraine with weapons

Hungary may agree to allocate an additional EUR500 million from the European Peace Facility (EPF) - a mechanism that compensates for the cost of military equipment donated by EU member states to Ukraine - after weeks of blocking this. Source: Euractiv, as reported by European Pravda Details: According to EU diplomats, EU foreign ministers are to give the green light to start work on disbursing the eighth tranche of the EUR500 million European External Action Fund to Ukraine to continue compensating for the supply of military equipment by EU member states.

Three EU diplomats told Euractiv that the deal should be formalised on Friday after the written procedure is completed, as Hungary has finally lifted its veto.

Officially, Budapest has stated that the European Peace Facility should help not only Ukraine but also other countries around the world. However, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto also made it clear that all this is happening solely because Ukraine has added the Hungarian OTP Bank to the list of international war sponsors. At the same time, according to Euractiv, Budapest links the decision to replenish the European Peace Facility and allocate an additional EUR500 million to Ukraine to the adoption of a new package of EU sanctions against Russia and the removal of OTP Bank from the Ukrainian blacklist.

Although it is understood in Hungary that only EUR1 billion of the additional funding will be allocated to support Ukraine, two diplomats told Euractiv that EU member states have not yet formalised agreements on a specific amount.

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Background: After months of negotiations, the European Union's foreign ministers are preparing to approve at a meeting on Monday, 26 June, a EUR3.5 billion increase in the European Peace Facility, which finances military assistance to Ukraine. The decision to increase the volume of the European Peace Facility will be approved by EU ministers after the relevant step was agreed by the permanent representatives of member states on Wednesday.

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