A unanimous decision was not reached today, because earlier Hungary declared that it would block the approval of the allocation of new funds to support Ukraine.
The European Union failed to approve a new tranche worth 500 million euros for armaments for Ukraine.
As UNIAN correspondent reports, Vice President of the European Commission, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign and Security Policy Josep Borrell said on briefing after the meeting of the EU Council with the participation of defense ministers.
“We have decided that an additional 500 million can be allocated, but we are still discussing it. I hope that any obstacles to the approval of these funds will be overcome this week,” Borrell said.
The high representative of the EU noted that this issue is being discussed in technical committees.
“We don’t have a consensus on this today,” Borrell emphasized.
According to him, thanks to the European Peace Fund, within the framework of which several tranches have already been allocated for military support to Ukraine, it was possible to encourage EU member states to allocate 10 billion euros for military armaments.
At the same time, Borrell said that most countries support increasing the financial limit of the fund by another 3.5 billion euros. He clarified that only half of these funds will be earmarked for Ukraine, and the rest of the funds will be allocated for other needs.
Tranche for Ukraine
On October 17, 2022, the European Union approved the allocation of the sixth tranche of 500 million euros for armaments for Ukraine. The sixth tranche increased the total assistance of the European Union to Ukraine under the European Peace Fund to 3.1 billion euros.
On December 12, the European Union agreed to increase the financial upper limit of the European Peace Fund, through which security assistance is provided to Ukraine. In particular, the financial upper limit of the fund will be increased to 2 billion euros in 2023 and to 5.5 billion euros by 2027.
Hungary has repeatedly declared its intention to block the allocation of additional funds for military aid to Ukraine within the framework of the European Peace Fund.
On January 23, 2023, the European Union reached a political agreement on the seventh tranche of military support with an additional 500 million euros.
On the same day, the mass media reported that Hungary had abandoned its intention to block the seventh tranche of military aid for Ukraine in the amount of 500 million euros.
On May 22, Borrell commented on Hungary’s blocking of the allocation of the next tranche of military aid to Ukraine due to the fact that the Hungarian OTP Bank was included in the list of war sponsors in Ukraine.
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Source: Інформаційне Агентство УНІАН by www.unian.ua.
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