Hungary keeps blocking €500 million from EU fund to help Ukraine with weapons

Hungary continues to block the disbursement of the eighth tranche of €500 million from the European Peace Facility, which is used to compensate EU states for the weapons they have transferred to Ukraine.

Source: Radio Liberty's Europe editor Rikard Jozwiak on Twitter (X) 

Details: This issue was discussed by EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Monday.

Quote: "Another discussion on Ukraine in Brussels today among the 27 foreign ministers of the EU. And still a blockage over the 8th tranche (500 million) of EU military aid for Ukraine."

Details: Hungary has been blocking the allocation of this €500 million for months because Ukraine's National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has put Hungary's largest bank, OTP Bank, on the list of "war sponsors".

In early October, Ukraine removed OTP Bank from the list, satisfying one of Budapest's key demands.

However, Hungary claims that Ukraine has not provided guarantees that the situation with OTP Bank or any other Hungarian company will never happen again, and therefore continues to maintain its veto.

In May, the NACP announced that it had added OTP Bank to the list of "war sponsors" due to the position of the bank's management to continue its activities in Russia and the de facto recognition of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics [self-proclaimed and non-recognised formations in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts].

After that, Budapest announced that it would block the allocation of new tranches from the European Peace Facility.

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