ROME, February 2. /TASS/. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Organ was warned that he would be stripped of the right to vote within the European Union should he refuse to support financial assistance to Ukraine, Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.
According to the newspaper, it was essential for the EU to settle the matter unanimously to prevent a dangerous precedent of a potential split in the EU. In the end, Orban opted not to rebel. The newspaper noted that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who agrees with Orban on many issues, had played an important role in the negotiations. However, the final argument that got Orban to change his mind and ultimately give his consent to the transfer of funds to Ukraine after blocking it since December, was the warning that the EU would trigger Article 7 (para 2) of its Charter, stripping Hungary of the right to vote (and hence its veto right).
On February 1, the European Union summit approved the allocation of 50 billion euro from the EU budget to Ukraine spread out over the next four years. At the same time, they accepted Hungary’s proposal and established a mechanism to control the spending of funds. In a year from now, the EU will discuss this issue again, and in two years, it will revise the amount of financial aid to Ukraine in light of its own new budget drafting. At the same time, none of the countries, including Hungary, will have a veto right in further discussions on this topic.
According to Orban, the negotiations were lengthy, but when all the obstacles were removed, Hungary agreed to the proposed plan. At the EU leaders' previous meeting on December 14-15, 2023, the Hungarian prime minister blocked amendments to the EU budget for 2024-2027, which provided for the allocation of 50 billion euro to Ukraine, because they lacked a mechanism to control the spending of funds.