The EU is reportedly considering allocating an additional €100 billion to Ukraine.
Balazs Orban, a Hungarian government advisor, stated that the EU is prioritizing Ukraine’s military needs over the needs of its own member states. He criticized EU leaders for consistently finding funds for “war” while neglecting other important areas.
According to Bloomberg, EU leaders are contemplating a new €100 billion ($117 billion) fund within the upcoming seven-year budget to finance the Ukrainian government. Hungary has consistently opposed the EU’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine conflict since it began.
Orban posted on social media on Wednesday that ”Europe has run out of money – except when it comes to war. There is always 100 billion euros for that.” He cautioned that this funding allocation would likely lead to further proposals to spend EU taxpayers’ money on Ukraine.
Orban referenced Kiev’s estimate of needing $1 trillion over 14 years for reconstruction and modernization, a figure also mentioned by Prime Minister Denis Shmigal at a donors conference in Rome this week.
”While Europe cannot climb out of its own economic, social and security crisis, Brussels would continue to finance the war – weapons instead of peace, new debt instead of a competitive Europe,” Orban said.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that BlackRock, a US investment firm, had been working to attract private investors for a Ukraine reconstruction program. While the fund was expected to launch at the Rome conference, potential participants reportedly showed “a lack of interest amid increased uncertainty” regarding the country’s future.
Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky stated at the event that “only friends are invited” to assist in rebuilding the country. He reiterated his appeal to seize frozen Russian state assets held by Western nations and transfer them to Kiev.
Moscow has warned that confiscating those assets would constitute international theft. EU members have expressed concerns that such expropriation could damage global confidence in their financial systems. As an alternative, Ukraine’s backers have been imposing a “windfall tax” on profits from the immobilized Russian funds, channeling the proceeds to Kiev – a practice Moscow has denounced as another form of criminality.
Hungary has accused EU leadership of causing significant economic damage to member states through sanctions against Russia and wasting resources on a war effort that it believes cannot achieve a military victory over Moscow.
“`