Council of EU will approve two legislative acts for €90bn Ukraine loan despite Hungary's objections – EU commissioner
The Council of the European Union is set to approve two pieces of legislation on 24 February, enabling technical preparations for a €90 billion loan to Ukraine to proceed despite Hungary blocking a third related document.
Source: Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, Implementation and Simplification, as reported by European Pravda
Details: The European Commission will continue with preparations to disburse the first tranche of the €90 billion loan to Ukraine in April 2026 despite Hungary's refusal to approve one of the required legislative acts.
"First of all, what will happen tomorrow: tomorrow is the finalisation of the Ukraine Support Loan regulation, and that process is on track," Dombrovskis said.
He explained that the approval of this document on 24 February "will finalise the political decision-making … on this Ukraine Support Loan regulation".
Quote: "That allows us to work on further documents which are required for providing this loan to Ukraine, including financing strategy for this year."
Details: Dombrovskis added that the EU is already working with the Ukrainian authorities on all of the documents.
He noted that the political discussions are currently focused on amendments to the Multiannual Financial Framework, the EU's long-term budget for 2021-2027, the adoption of which has been blocked by Hungary.
"Those amendments are needed so that the European Commission can actually do the borrowing at the EU level to provide this Ukraine Support Loan to Ukraine," Dombrovskis clarified.
Thus, Hungary's refusal to approve changes to the EU's long-term budget does not pose an immediate threat to the process, as the Commission must prepare to raise funds for Ukraine on the international financial markets.
Quote: "In December, all EU leaders, including Hungary's prime minister, Mr Orbán, agreed to this Ukraine Support Loan, and by the way, Hungary alongside Slovakia and Czechia is not contributing to this financial support, so we expect them to honour this agreement.
…We would aim to start disbursing [funds] to Ukraine as of early April."
Background:
- Hungary has blocked the €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine by refusing to vote in favour of one of the three pieces of legislation approved by the European Parliament that are required to release the funds – the regulation on amendments to the EU's long-term budget for 2021-2027.
- All three documents have been approved by the European Parliament and are at the final stage of adoption in the Council of the EU.
- The plan had been for the documents to be adopted by the Council and signed in the European Parliament on 24 February, marking the anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
- Hungary has said it will keep the €90 billion loan blocked until Kyiv restores Russian oil transit via the Druzhba pipeline.
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