Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Hungarian Viktor Orbán said they agree with the need to revise the European Unionʼs €50 billion financial aid plan for Ukraine.
The Washington Post wrote about it.
After bilateral negotiations in Budapest, the Prime Minister of Slovakia agreed with Viktor Orbánʼs two positions: the EU should not provide Ukraine with €50 billion from the common budget, and the war cannot be solved by military means.
"We have listened very carefully to the proposals that Prime Minister [Orbán] has already put forward regarding the revision of the budget and aid to Ukraine, and I repeat that we consider them to be rational and reasonable," Fico said.
The prime minister of Slovakia supported Orbánʼs recommendation to divide the funding into four tranches that could be changed and blocked at any time.
On October 3, 2023, the European Parliament adopted a resolution supporting the European Commissionʼs proposals to revise the multi-year EU budget, which provides for the creation of a special Ukrainian fund in the amount of €50 billion. However, Hungary was the only country that opposed this initiative, constantly blocking it. Now Slovakia can join it. In order to convince Orban to approve the provision of €50 billion in aid to Ukraine, the EU will hold a special summit. The President of the Eurocouncil noted that the date of the special EU summit has not yet been confirmed, but it is known that it will take place at the end of January — beginning of February.
On the eve of the previous "Ukrainian" summit, where the agenda included, in particular, the allocation of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine — €50 billion for the next four years — the European Commission unfroze €10 billion for Hungary. Budapest did not receive this money due to concerns about the rule of law in the country. Thus, the EU is trying to convince Hungary to unblock the aid package to Ukraine. In general , the European Commission is ready to make concessions to Hungary in order to transfer aid to Ukraine.
Who is Robert Fico?
At the end of October 2023 , Robert Fico from the pro-Russian party Smer became the new prime minister of Slovakia. After that, the country announced that it would not provide military aid to Ukraine. Already on November 8, the Slovak government did not approve the 14th package of military aid to Ukraine for €40.3 million from the previous government. Almost all important aid packages from the EU before the elections in Slovakia were blocked by Hungary. Now, Slovakia can also follow her path in matters concerning Ukraine and sanctions against Russia.
- Recently, the Slovak prime minister wrote a column for the media, where he called the Westʼs strategy regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war a "failure" and declared his desire to normalize relations with Russia. According to him, Russia should allegedly receive "security guarantees" regarding Ukraine.