In its recent review, the Italian International Policy Institute IAI estimates that the Hungarian Prime Minister does not Viktor Orbán can no longer stand in the way in future decisions regarding support for Ukraine.
Head of the foreign and security policy research of the senate of the upper house of the Italian parliament, who wrote the review Federico Petrangelin according to Orbán himself played himself out of future decisions.
Petrangeli estimates that the European Council no longer needs to approve new funding for Ukraine, because it has already approved the matter once. According to Petrangel, the decisive decision was made in the council at the end of January. At that time, Orbán was persuaded behind the support package.
In addition, Petrangeli highlights the meeting of EU foreign ministers at the end of May, which dealt with the funds frozen from Russia. He reminds that the foreign ministers have decided that most of the interest income from the frozen funds will be used for military support of Ukraine and the rest for the development and reconstruction of the country’s defense industry resources.
Petrangeli also refers to the EU’s high foreign policy representative who chaired the meeting of foreign ministers Josep Borrellin to the statement that Hungary “legally” no longer has the right to participate in the decision on the allocation of these funds.
“This reasoning is valid because these funds do not come from the EU budget or member states, but rather from Russian funds or their interest income,” Petrangeli emphasizes.
One problem still remains with Hungary’s position. director of research at the Italian Foreign Policy Institute Antonio Villafranca has reminded in his own analysis that according to the final statement of the European Council, the situation of the Ukraine support package is reviewed annually. Viktor Orbán can still vote against support in these contexts.