Budapest will not participate in financing arms supplies to Ukraine from the European Peace Fund, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said following a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
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“Hungary has not sent weapons before and will not do so after this. And we are not ready to participate in any decision or process that will lead to an increase in arms supplies to Ukraine,” the official said.
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According to him, Budapest would have to send 23 billion forints a year to the general fund so that other countries send weapons to Ukraine.
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“Of course, we do not support this proposal,” Szijjarto emphasized.
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He added that Hungary cannot and will not prevent other countries from sending weapons to Ukraine on the basis of a national decision.
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“This will be everyone’s decision, every government must report to its voters, Hungary will not take part in sending weapons,” Szijjártó concluded.
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The Wall Street Journal previously wrote about plans to create a new fund in Europe to assist Ukraine.
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According to the publication, in order to circumvent Hungary’s veto, the European External Action Service proposes to establish a new structure and include in it about 6.5 billion euros from the assets of the extra-budgetary European Peace Fund.
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In addition, it is proposed to allocate up to five billion euros per year to the new fund from 2024 to 2027. The goal of the project is to use this money to compensate countries for joint purchases of military aid to be transferred to Ukraine.
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At a summit in Brussels in mid-December, Hungary vetoed an increase in the EU’s multi-year budget for 2024-2027, including 50 billion euros in macro-financial assistance to Kyiv. The head of the European Council, Charles Michel, told reporters after the summit that he expects that EU leaders will be able to unanimously approve financial assistance to Ukraine at the beginning of 2024. The next extraordinary EU summit is scheduled for February 1.
