The EU’s top diplomat has expressed frustration with Budapest for not allowing the reimbursement of weapons expenses
FILE PHOTO: A destroyed Sweden-made Combat Vehicle CV9040 displayed at an exhibition of trophy military equipment in Moscow. © Vlad Karkov / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has expressed frustration over Hungary’s refusal to lift its veto on the use of some €6 billion ($6.6) allocated for weapons to Ukraine under the European Peace Facility (EPF).
The EU launched the scheme in 2021, but it came to prominence after Brussels decided to use it to help Ukraine’s war effort against Russia. Hungary, a vocal opponent of EU policy on the Ukraine crisis, has been blocking military aid to Kiev for over a year. Among other things, it means that member states cannot be reimbursed for deliveries they have already made.
“I cannot accept to have €6 billion in my current account,” Borrell told the media, when asked about the EPF money following an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday. “This money has to go to the member states.”
Budapest objects to sending weapons to Ukraine, arguing that the deliveries have failed to alter the course of the conflict and stand in the way of peace talks. It refuses to provide military assistance either directly or through the joint EU budget.
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While the EPF funds remain unavailable due to Hungarian objections, Borrell said that the EU has transferred to Ukraine some €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) of Russian money, generated by Russian sovereign assets which the EU immobilized in retaliation for the Ukraine conflict.
Brussels claims it has the right to use the profits as it sees fit. The transfer will “support the Ukrainian [arms] industry at home,” Borrell told journalists. Moscow has condemned the EU move as a form of theft.
The high commissioner is a vocal proponent of supporting Ukraine against Russia. Borrell has expressed full EU support for the Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region, which Kiev launched earlier this month, urged for long-range strikes on Russia with Western weapons, and has claimed that Europeans “are not a party to the war, but we are part of the conflict.”.
Senior Hungarian officials have criticized such remarks, with Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto describing them this week as “madness” that “must be put to an end.”
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Moscow considers the Ukraine conflict to be a US-led proxy war against Russia, in which Ukrainian soldiers serve as ‘cannon fodder’. The EU has been subverted by Washington and supports its geopolitical goals even when doing so hurts the interests of the citizens of member states, Russian officials have argued.