European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen listens to Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán speaking during the presentation of the programme for Hungary’s rotating Council Presidency at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on October 9, 2024.
FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP
The EU establishment is siding with Kyiv rather than helping one of its own member states secure a significant energy issue.
The Brussels establishment is working “in coordination” with Kyiv to pressure Viktor Orbán’s administration, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Monday.
Key figures, including top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas and European Council President António Costa, have scolded Budapest for blocking a €90 billion EU loan package for Ukraine. Szijjártó previously said the veto will be maintained until Kyiv restores Russian oil transit to Hungary via the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline, the turning off of which threatens Hungary’s energy security and risks pushing petrol prices sharply higher.
Rather than side with an EU member state that is effectively being blackmailed by an outsider—say, by pressuring Kyiv to change course in order to receive its funding—Brussels has chosen to go on the attack against one of its own. Kallas bashed Budapest’s protection of its own interests as “really regrettable,” saying: “It’s not really in accordance with the sincere cooperation clause that we have in the [EU] treaties.” Costa added that “no member state can be allowed to undermine the credibility of decisions taken collectively by the European Council.”
France’s Emmanuel Macron also joined the pile-one, saying “it cannot be otherwise” than that the European Council’s December approval of the funds for Ukraine are sent forward now—even, presumably, if the surrounding circumstances have changed.
Hungary and Slovakia [which should also be receiving oil via the Druzhba pipeline] are members of the European Union. Ukraine is not. Yet Brussels is siding with Ukraine against its own member states.
Kallas’ reconsideration of a plan—shelved in December—to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine, rather than to work towards resolving Budapest’s workable concerns, will no doubt now also frustrate Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever. Brussels previously ignored his warnings of the “consequential economic, financial and legal risks,” choosing to pressure him into submission anyway. And now it looks set to do so again.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
