MNI BRIEF: EU Says Hungary Compromise On Ukraine Aid Possible
The EU has proposed to Hungary a compromise proposal to unlock a EUR50bn aid package for Ukraine which would allow for the funding to be reviewed on a yearly basis, a senior EU official said Tuesday, although acceptingan agreement had not yet been reached.
"There are ways to do it but so far it has not reached a point of agreement,” the official added.
The official said that a solution based on agreement of all 27 EU leaders still remained the “favoured option” and that an agreement of just 26 countries would need to be outside the EU budget and would be “complicated”. EU officials have distanced themselves from a leaked EU Council document that seemed to suggest that the EU could pile pressure on the Hungarian economy to the point of collapse should Prime Minister Viktor Orban refused to support the Ukraine aid package. (MNI POLICY: Hungary Cenbank Weighs Proposed Benchmark's Impact)