The EU resorts to a legal trick to circumvent Hungary’s veto on military aid to Ukraine

To this first tranche, which will be delivered to the Government of Volodymyr Zelensky in the coming weeks, will be added a second disbursement of 1,000 million of euros at the end of the year. In theory, this decision required the unanimous support of all 27 member states, but the legal services of the Council of the EU have found a way to bypass Hungary’s ‘no’. A solution that could also be used to orchestrate the loan of 50,000 million of euros promised by the G-7 to kyiv, which is guaranteed precisely by the benefits of frozen Russian assets.

“Putin continues to attack, focusing above all on energy infrastructure. It is clear that Putin wants to show that Ukraine is vulnerable and we have to show that we continue to support Ukraine,” said the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrellat the end of the meeting.

[Veto de Hungría y sin Patriots: el apoyo de la UE a Ucrania se ralentiza en plena ofensiva rusa]

In total, the EU keeps immobilized around 210,000 million of euros from the Central Bank of Russia since the outbreak of war, which are blocked in Euroclear, one of the largest securities depositories in the world based in Brussels.

European governments agreed last May to use the benefits generated by these reserves, around 3,000 million euros per year, to send military aid to Ukraine. According to the interpretation of the legal service, since Ukraine abstained in that vote, it cannot now veto the disbursement, because the money does not come from European taxpayers.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártóhas denounced this legal fix but, for the moment, has not been able to do anything to stop the agreement at 26. Szijjártó maintains that the EU “has begun to cross red lines” by allocating these additional 1.4 billion for the shipment of weapons to Ukraine. The decision has been made “without the consent” of Hungary and represents an “unprecedented violation of European standards,” he said.

In any case, the Government of Budapest maintains its veto to another item worth 6.6 billion euros from the European Peace Fund for military aid to Ukraine. For this blockage, legal services have not yet found a solution. Hungary assumes the six-month presidency of the Council of the EU next Monday, July 1, and has already announced that it plans to maintain his obstructionist attitude.

Before Orbán takes over the reins of the EU, the Twenty-seven celebrate this Tuesday in Luxembourg the first Accession Conference with Ukraine, which marks the official start of the negotiations for his entry into the community club. The process will still take years and even decades, but it represents a powerful political signal for the Zelensky government. Budapest has already announced that it will not open any chapters during its semester.

Furthermore, the ambassadors of the 27 have given the green light this Monday to long-term security guarantee package that the EU is going to offer to kyiv. A package that will be signed during the European Council on Thursday and Friday in Brussels, which the Ukrainian president himself is scheduled to attend.