Orban denies connection between EU money for Hungary and Ukraine issues

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban insisted that there is no connection between the unfreezing of more than €10 billion in funds for Budapest and funding for Ukraine or EU accession talks, UNN reports citing Politico.

Orban commented on the European Commission's decision yesterday to unblock 10.2 billion euros of frozen EU cohesion funds, saying that getting the money was "better late than never."

But he insisted that there was no link between the unfreezing of the funds and funding for Ukraine or EU accession negotiations.

"Hungary does not connect any Hungarian issue with the Ukrainian issue," he said.

According to The Guardian, Orban insists that funds for long-term financing for Ukraine should be outside the EU budget.

For example, on the issue of 50 billion euros of funding for Ukraine, he made it clear that the EU can either continue to use existing funds or find it outside the European budget - in any case, this means money from 26, not 27, member states.

"The money (for Ukraine) is already in the budget. Therefore, there is no additional decision to give them (money) in the short term, in the long term and more money. (...) My position is that we have to pass it outside, but we are not under time pressure because the transitional solution is already in the budget," he added.

It is also indicated that Orban insists that now is not the best time to negotiate with Kyiv on EU membership.

As noted, when asked if "you are against Ukraine's accession?", he replied: "No", adding that it was a matter of "procedure".

As a reminder,

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban showed no signs of being ready to compromise on Ukraine's EU accession when he arrived at the summit on Thursday morning.