BUDAPEST, February 1. /TASS/. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he succeeded in reaching his goals at the European Council meeting in Brussels, which addressed the controversial issue of providing funding to Ukraine.
"Mission accomplished," he said on X. "Hungary’s funds will not end up in Ukraine and we have a control mechanism at the end of the first and the second year. Our position on the war in Ukraine remains unchanged: We need a ceasefire and peace talks."
He earlier said leaders of the other 26 EU member states agreed with the Hungarian proposal to establish a control mechanism to guarantee the reasonable spending of the funds that are provided to Kiev. EU funds for Hungary will not be used to finance Ukraine. The EU will return to the issue in a year, and two years from now it will consider the amount of financial aid to Kiev again as part of the preparation of its new budget. According to the prime minister, the talks took long, but when all hurdles were removed, Hungary agreed to the EU proposals.
According to European Council President Charles Michel, the council approved giving Ukraine 50 billion euros in aid to prop up the country’s budget over the next four years. Orban blocked the plan when the council convened for the previous meeting from December 14-15, saying it lacked a mechanism to control the spending of the funds.