EU to review €90B Ukraine loan next week
Photo: Kaja Kallas (Getty Images)
As early as next week, the EU Foreign Affairs Council will consider the issue of a €90 billion loan to Ukraine and the 20th package of anti-Russian sanctions, according to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas.
"On the EU side, it is high time to unblock the €90-billion loan and move forward with the 20th sanctions package. The Foreign Affairs Council will take this up next week," she says.
Kallas' statement comes in response to yet another massive Russian strike on Ukraine. She stresses that "with its army stalled on the battlefield, Moscow keeps falling back on terror against the innocent."
"Russia wants more war, so our response is more aid for Ukraine, more pressure on Russia, and full accountability for war crimes," the EU’s top diplomat emphasizes.
EU loan to Ukraine
The election victory in Hungary of party leader Péter Magyar does not mean the automatic release of the EU’s 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine.
Magyar stated that he was ready to discuss the issue with European leaders, but the decision was actually adopted by the European Council back in December, and at that time, Hungary, Slovakia, and Czechia were granted the right not to join the program.
Even if Budapest withdraws its objections, Bratislava is next in line. Slovakia and its Prime Minister, Robert Fico, have not yet changed their position. Added to this is the usual bureaucratic red tape: forming a new Hungarian government would take time in and of itself.
Meanwhile, the European Commission has postponed the first tranche of a €90 billion loan for Ukraine.
