Hungarian government still refuses to approve financing of further arms shipments to Ukraine + video

Hungary still refuses to approve the transfer of the next 500-million-euro installment of the European Peace Facility, until Kyiv removes OTP bank, which has not violated any international laws, from its list of international war sponsors, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in Luxembourg on Monday.

The foreign ministers have reached an agreement on a €3.5-billion increase in the European Peace Facility's extra-budgetary fund, but the Hungarian government only gave its approval after receiving legal guarantees to keep the “global nature” of this fund, the minister said in a press briefing during a break in the meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council.

This means that the bloc will provide support to Western Balkan and African countries from this extra-budgetary fund so that stability in those regions can be maintained and new migratory waves posing a security risk could be prevented, he stated.

In connection with that, he pointed out that the European Peace Facility had been getting depleted, as some €6 billion had already been transferred to partially finance arms shipments to Ukraine. Hungary strongly objects to this shift of focus, as the original aim of the facility was to support maintaining stability in several parts of the world, thus alleviating security threats to the continent.

So, for example, the European Union originally intended to give aid to Africa and the Sahel, and even to the Western Balkans to maintain be peace, calm and security in those regions, so that we could curb the migration flows from there.

he said.

Peter Szijjarto emphasized that the pressure was enormous, as almost all participants urged the payment of the next €500-million installment for arms shipments to Ukraine, adding that Hungary decided not to approve it.

So we still don't approve the European Union's use of the European Peace Facility’s  extra-budgetary fund to finance new arms shipments to Ukraine, because we have made it clear that we are only willing to lift our block if Ukrainian authorities put an end to this ridiculous, untrue situation that OTP, the largest Hungarian bank, is on the list of international sponsors of the war.

he warned, adding that "this is our clear expectation, and we are not willing to make concessions from it. It is nonsense that while Ukraine expects the European Union, including Hungary, to make further and further financial sacrifices to finance arms supplies, it has put the largest Hungarian bank on the list of war sponsors and is keeping it there," he underlined. "In today’s meeting, I have made it clear to the high representative and to all my counterparts that they too should be so kind as to take steps in this matter with the Ukrainians.”

If the payment of another €500 million for arms supplies is so important for them, they should at least get the Ukrainians to take OTP off the list,

he added.

The Ukrainian authorities "could easily resolve this situation, they could remove OTP from this list in a minute if they wanted to, but it seems that there is no will for that at the moment." Finally, he pointed out that the Ukrainian authorities mentioned four reasons for putting the bank on the list, all of which were "ridiculous, false and untruthful in every way,” the minister stressed. 

The war in Ukraine is claiming an increasing number of casualties, there is a real possibility of serious natural disasters, and there is increasing talk of the threat of nuclear accidents, Mr Szijjarto mentioned.

All of these facts …. prove that there is no solution to this war on the battlefield. We have been saying this for a very long time, and unfortunately I have to tell you that the tragically sad developments taking place day after day are proving us right. This war cannot be resolved on the battlefield, only through negotiations. But in spite of this, it unfortunately became clear again at today’s Foreign Affairs Council meeting that the vast majority of member states and the European Union itself insists on a military solution,

he said, adding that “although after sixteen months, it has been acknowledged at the Council meeting that the global majority wants immediate peace, but despite this acknowledgment, they continue to urge a military solution in the European Union.”

Those who favored a solution to the war on the battlefield over a diplomatic settlement bore responsibility for the growing casualties and natural disasters, which would increase the prices of reconstruction obviously to be spearheaded by Europe, the minister opined.

However, serious questions are needed to be put on the agenda before any decision is made about how reconstruction would be financed and how it would affect the development funding of member states, he pointed out. “So, despite the growing number of casualties, we continue to see member states calling for more and more military support for Ukraine, which we unfortunately still consider extremely dangerous. Instead of military support, the focus should finally be on peace efforts,” he said.

After that, the minister mentioned of a fresh report by the Venice Commission declaring that Ukraine failed to meet its obligations regarding the rights of national minorities. “The situation is that Ukraine has been curtailing the rights of national minority communities since 2015," he said, calling Ukraine’s decision to delay the changes to the operations of minority schools” propaganda”, arguing that this offered no solution to the situation of ethnic Hungarian schools.

If it remains the situation and Ukraine fails to restore the rights of the ethnic Hungarian community in Transcarpathia, it will not be ready to start accession talks with the EU and we won’t be able to give our support, either. Hungary expects Ukraine to meet the EU requirements and obligations enshrined in the international treaties on guaranteeing the rights of minority communities,

Mr Szijjarto said. He finally reiterated that although several politicians urged it again, Hungary would never approve sanctions that would render the operations of its own nuclear industry impossible.

Cover photo: Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto (right) and Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Wlachovsky at the meeting of EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 26 June 2023 (Photo: MTI/EPA/Julien Warnand)