At the EU summit in Brussels, EU leaders have given historically harsh criticism of Hungary's Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, for his rejection of an EU loan of 90 billion euros to Hungary. This was stated by the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, at a standing press conference in connection with the EU summit.
- I have never heard such harsh criticism at an EU summit. The criticism also focused on the fact that you cannot trust the things that have been agreed. It has never happened before, said several of the EU leaders who have been involved for longer than me, says Ulf Kristersson.
The Swedish Prime Minister thus states that the criticism was particularly sharp because Orbán himself said yes to the loan to Ukraine at the EU summit in December last year. Orbán's rejection is thus also a break with the way EU summits work. Here, the leaders commit that an agreement is an agreement.
Hungary's yes to the loan even came with the condition that Hungary will not be held responsible for the loan if Ukraine cannot repay it. Slovakia and the Czech Republic were given the same exemption at the meeting. This means that the other 24 EU countries - including Denmark - must repay the money if Ukraine cannot.
But that has not been enough to convince Orbán, who believes that Ukraine is deliberately withholding Russian oil from Hungary. Ukraine denies this, insisting that it will take about six weeks to repair the Druzhba pipeline after Russian attacks.
At the summit, however, EU President António Costa and a number of EU leaders made it clear to Orbán that his behavior is unacceptable.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) was among the European leaders who criticized Orbán on the way to the summit:
- The message to Hungary is of course that we have an agreement to provide a loan to Ukraine so that they can continue the war and thus protect not only themselves, but Europe. It is unacceptable that Hungary is blocking Europe from doing what is needed to look after Europe, said Mette Frederiksen on her way to the meeting.
According to Ulf Kristersson, Viktor Orbán reiterated at the summit that he will stop blocking the loan as soon as the oil is flowing again through the Druzjba pipeline to Hungary.
- He will only give up his veto when the oil comes. We believe that is unacceptable. He received that message from almost all the leaders at the meeting, says Ulf Kristersson.
/ritzau/
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