The European Union, despite Hungary's opposition, promised to send a new package of financial aid to Kyiv. The money should be used to strengthen the military defense capacity of the attacked country.
This Tuesday, June 25, negotiations on Ukraine's membership in the European Union should officially begin. At the meeting in Luxembourg, the EU will hand over to the representative of the authorities in Kyiv a negotiating framework that defines the guidelines for the course of negotiations. After the conference with Ukraine, the Union will also open negotiations with Moldova.
"The EU is life insurance" for both countries, German Foreign Minister Analena Berbock said on the eve of the Luxembourg meetings. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized that this step "realizes the European dream" of his countrymen.
The negotiations could, as expected, last several years, and perhaps several decades. A prerequisite for joining the EU is, at least in the case of Ukraine, peace with Russia.
Even before the opening of negotiations with the Union, another piece of good news for Kyiv arrived from Luxembourg. "During the next month, we will put 1,4 billion euros at Ukraine's disposal, and another billion by the end of this year," promised the high representative of the EU for foreign affairs, Josep Borelj. At the press conference after the meeting of the heads of diplomacy of the EU member states, he said that the money should be used for anti-aircraft defense, procurement of ammunition and aid to Ukrainian industry.
This money is actually interest on frozen Russian assets. There have long been plans to "redirect" that money to help Ukrainians. The Council of the EU has now finally, with the opposition of Hungary, agreed on the use of 90 percent of the available interest on Russian property within the EPF fund (European Peace Facility) to help Kiev. The members of the G7 group also recently reached an agreement to secure loans to Ukrainians with the help of interest income.
According to the European Union, in the period between 2022 and 2024, more than eleven billion euros have already been collected from the EPF for Ukraine. According to the European Commission, Russian assets worth around 210 billion euros have been frozen in the EU. According to some estimates, between 2,5 and 2023 billion euros are "earned" on average from this property every year in interest. For 4,4, the financial institute Euroclear, based in Belgium, calculated that interest on Russian assets amounted to XNUMX billion euros.
A legal trick
In addition, Borelj announced that "it was possible to find a legal procedure with the help of which any form of blockade is prevented". In doing so, he was probably referring to Hungary and that country's opposition to the idea of "redirecting" income from interest on Russian property to Kiev.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijroto announced that his country will examine the legal options available to it against the EU procedure, Reuters reported. With that decision, the EU is "crossing the red line", said the spokesman of the Hungarian government, quoting Szijjártó's announcement on the X platform. The Hungarian head of diplomacy criticized the "unprecedented violation of common European regulations".
Hungary at the head of the EU
The Hungarian blockade regarding Ukraine is nothing new for the EU. That country has been blocking the sending of new financial aid in the amount of several billion euros for months, just like the sending of military aid. The Hungarians justify this policy with the fear that additional aid could result in a further escalation of the war. According to Borelj, the total value of blocked aid for Ukraine is around six billion euros.
The European Union, on the other hand, is blocking the sending of money to Hungary, due to doubts about (non)compliance with the principle of the rule of law. On July 1, Hungary will take over the presidency of the Union for the next six months. By the end of this year, Budapest will also lead the meetings of the Ministerial Council, that is, it will be a key country for creating the agenda for meetings at the EU level, as well as for initiating procedures for the adoption of new laws at the level of the Union.
With regard to the upcoming role that Hungary will take on in the EU, that is, in the context of further support for Ukraine, German Foreign Minister Analena Berbock said on Monday: "We can adopt all these steps together in the Union, as we have done in the past two years. And that's where we need everyone, including the country presiding over the Council."
New sanctions against Russia
At the meeting in Luxembourg, EU foreign ministers also adopted a new, 14th package of sanctions against Russia. It specifically aims to close some "loopholes" that have been observed in the previous packages of punitive measures. About one point, however, the member countries did not (fully) follow the Commission's recommendations. And because of Germany. Namely, the European Commission wanted to punish those concerns that through their branches abroad "bypass" sanctions in third countries. In the new package, it only states that the concerns must "as much as possible" try to prevent such things from happening. The new package of sanctions prohibits, among other things, the "transshipment" of Russian liquefied natural gas in the EU, in order to reduce Russian revenues from the sale of energy products.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis assessed that the package of sanctions became weaker and weaker over time. Russia called the new package of punitive measures "ineffective". At the meeting of the Ministerial Council in Luxembourg, the situation in the Middle East and the Western Balkans was discussed, among other things.
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