EU agrees on a new aid package for Ukraine for 50 billion euros

The leaders of the European Union reached an agreement this Thursday to deliver 50 billion euros in aid to Ukraine for the next four years after Hungary lifted its veto on the package, European Council President Charles Michel said.

“We have an agreement. Unity. The 27 leaders agreed on an additional support package of 50 billion euros for Ukraine within the EU budget,” Michel announced through the social network X shortly after the summit of heads of state began. and Community Government in Brussels.

“This ensures firm, predictable and long-term financing for Ukraine. The EU is taking leadership and responsibility in supporting Ukraine; we know what is at stake,” Michel posted.

“It is very important that the decision was made by all 27 leaders, which once again demonstrates the solid unity of the EU,” the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, quickly congratulated himself, as the second anniversary of the Russian invasion approaches. .

“It is a good day for Europe,” said the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, while the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, asserted that “the security of Ukraine is the security of Europe.”

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The leaders of the 27 EU countries had a summit on their agenda this Thursday in Brussels with the task of overcoming the Hungarian blockade to aid to Ukraine.

However, a meeting between Michel and Von der Leyen with the president of France, Emmanuel Macron; The head of the German government, Olaf Scholz, the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, paved the way for an agreement before the formal start of the summit.

Orban used his veto of the aid package for Ukraine to obtain in return the disbursement of European funds that correspond to his country and that the EU has blocked due to doubts about the validity of the rule of law in Hungary.

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The Hungarian ultranationalist asked for a mechanism to evaluate aid to
Ukraine, despite it being a plan until 2027, and having the possibility of a veto in each analysis, something that the rest of the partners flatly rejected.

In December, Orban had managed to block a unanimous agreement on the aid package, and therefore it was necessary to call the special summit this Thursday. Since the failure of the December summit in the Belgian capital, EU negotiators have frantically searched for a formula that would allow them to twist the arm of the Hungarian prime minister.

The other 26 Member States maintained the position agreed upon last December of including this aid in the multiannual financial framework to give it stability over the next four years and, if a unanimous agreement had not been reached, they had a plan B to transfer funds to kyiv even without the approval of Budapest.

The enormous aid package recently agreed is made up of 33 billion euros in long-term loans, and some 17,000 million euros in immediate guarantees and transfers, over a period of four years, until 2027.

Arriving at the meeting in Brussels, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk – a former president of the European Council and an intimate insider of the corridors of power in Brussels – said that “one way or another we will find a solution, with or without Orban.” “.

Tusk's phrase revealed that European leaders were willing to move forward even if Hungary maintained its veto.

At the summit, leaders must also address EU countries' commitments to military aid to Ukraine, especially the delivery of mortar and howitzer ammunition.

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In March 2023, the EU had committed to delivering one million howitzers to Ukraine by the end of March of this year, but on Wednesday the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, admitted that it will only deliver around 52 million on time. % of what was promised.

“We have already delivered about 330,000 howitzers (…) I hope this number will increase by another 200,000” until the end of March, “a little more than 52% of our objective,” Borrell said at the close of a meeting of Defense Ministers of The EU.

The summit, however, starts under the pressure of a huge demonstration of Belgian farmers, who blocked the main avenues since dawn. of Brussels with a thousand tractors and agricultural machines. The police however kept them away from the headquarters of the European institutions. According to the police, another 200 tractors and agricultural equipment are located on the outskirts of Brussels.

AFP and EFE