By Lili Bayer and Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS, March 19 (Reuters) – European Union leaders failed to convince Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday to lift his blockade on a vital 90-billion-euro ($103 billion) EU loan to Ukraine, officials said.
“They tried. They failed,” one European official said of the efforts by other EU leaders to convince Orban at a summit in Brussels.
EU leaders agreed to the loan in December but Orban, who has cordial ties with Russia and has clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has blocked its implementation, citing a dispute over a war-damaged pipeline.
Orban’s stance has angered other EU leaders as Kyiv could run short of money in weeks if it does not receive new funding and his U-turn has called into question the credibility of the European Council, the EU’s highest decision-making body.
“It was intense, a lot of pressure on Orban that (EU summit) decisions are respected by all,” another European official said after the leaders discussed the Ukraine loan.
A third European official, referring to Orban, said: “Discussion was tough and rough, but Viktor is still not budging.” A fourth said: “Everyone is increasingly angry with Orban.”
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential discussions between leaders.
ORBAN SAYS HE STOOD HIS GROUND IN ‘TOUGH DEBATE’
Orban, who faces an election next month, reiterated after the discussion that he was not backing down.
“It was a tough debate, but we stood our ground,” he wrote on X. “As long as Zelenskiy does not lift the oil blockade, they will not receive any money from Brussels.”
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico also criticised Ukraine over interrupted supplies through the Druzhba pipeline.
The pipeline, which carries Russian oil through Ukraine to Hungary and Slovakia, was damaged by a Russian attack in January, officials say. Ukraine says it will take some time to repair. Hungary says it is already ready to operate.
“Relations between the EU and Ukraine, as well as mutual Slovak-Ukrainian relations, are not and cannot be a one-way ticket,” Fico said.
In a video address to the leaders which was posted on X, Zelenskiy said the loan was “critical” for Ukraine.
“It is a resource to protect lives,” he said.
DUTCH PM SAYS ORBAN’S VETO IS ‘UNACCEPTABLE’
Orban, a nationalist ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, has often clashed with Brussels and mainstream EU politicians but had not previously reneged on a deal agreed among EU leaders, diplomats say.
“We have to be clear: Hungary’s veto is unacceptable, the extra support for Ukraine has to be delivered as quickly as possible,” Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten told reporters.
“He’s using Ukraine as a weapon in his election campaign, and it’s not good,” Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said, referring to the April 12 election in Hungary and accusing Orban of betraying fellow EU leaders.
Many EU officials are particularly exasperated by Orban’s veto as Hungary secured an opt-out from paying for the costs of the loan, along with the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever raised the prospect that the EU may have to wait until after Hungary’s election to implement the loan.
With Russia’s war on Ukraine in its fifth year, Kyiv faces a ballooning budget deficit and has said there are no alternative financing options if the EU loan remains blocked.
Ukraine’s government spends the bulk of its revenues on defence and depends on foreign financial aid to pay pensions, public sector wages, and other social spending.
If the loan is not approved soon, the government will have to start cutting expenditure and resort to printing money, political analysts said.
($1 = 0.8726 euros)
(Additional reporting by Andrew Gray, Bart Meijer, Miranda Murray, Essi Lehto, Gianluca Lo Nostro, Gergely Szakacs, Andreas Rinke, Olena Harmash, Julia Payne, Jason Hovet; Writing by Andrew Gray and Ingrid Melander; Editing by Stephen Coates, Timothy Heritage and Gareth Jones)
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