Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán signalled no willingness to compromise on the planned €90 billion loan for Ukraine just before the EU summit in Brussels.
Upon arriving at the summit venue on Thursday, he said he would not back any pro‑Ukraine measures until the issue of halted oil deliveries to Hungary is resolved. The pause came after damage to the Druzhba pipeline in Ukraine stopped Russian oil from reaching Hungary for several weeks, a problem Orbán blames on the Ukrainian side.
Orbán had previously agreed to the loan at the December summit but later vetoed it. The EU Commission recently announced it would dispatch its own experts to help repair the pipeline, but Orbán says this concession is not enough. He will only change his position when oil actually starts flowing into Hungary again.
The prime minister’s reversal has caused strong irritation among other EU members. It is a rarity for a decision taken at a summit to be rescinded afterward. Critics argue that Orbán is exploiting the oil‑pipeline dispute to boost his campaign ahead of Hungary’s parliamentary election on April 12.