The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) excluded the Hungarian OTP Bank from the list of international sponsors of the war.
The press service of the agency writes about it.
The statement says that discussions with the participation of the European External Action Service have continued in recent days. After that, OTP Bank undertook obligations related to further activities in the Russian market.
Therefore, NACP fulfilled its part of the agreement, excluding the bank from the list of international sponsors of the war. And now he is waiting for the actions of OTP Bank, which they agreed on.
- On September 29, the NACP suspended the war sponsor status for OTP Bank, hoping that Hungary would unblock a €500 million tranche from the European Peace Fund for military aid to Ukraine. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary stated that they consider such a concession insufficient.
- The European Peace Fund was created in March 2021 to finance all common foreign and security policy actions related to military and defense issues. In particular, this EU fund is designed to finance the strengthening of the capacity of non-EU countries.
- On May 17, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary already stated that his country would block the next tranches of EU aid for Ukraine for €500 million, as long as OTP Bank is on the list of war sponsors. It happened again at the end of June.
- Earlier, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention of Ukraine announced that it had included OTP Bank, the largest Hungarian bank, on the list of war sponsors due to the position of the bankʼs management to continue operating in the Russian Federation. NACP maintains a list of war sponsors, but it does not have any status and does not lead to any legal consequences.
- After that, Hungary blocked the allocation of another €500 million tranche from the European Peace Fund.