Luxembourg PM: By meeting with Putin, Orbán essentially gave Ukrainians the middle finger

The EU should not allow itself to be held hostage by Viktor Orbán, Xavier Bettel said on the second day of the EU summit, which began on Thursday. The outgoing Luxembourg Prime Minister joined the Estonian Prime Minister and the Lithuanian President in criticising his Hungarian counterpart's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin a few days ago.

On his arrival on the first day of the EU summit, Orbán said he was proud of his peace strategy, which is focusing on keeping all channels of communication open. But the way Xavier Bettel saw it,

"by meeting with Putin, Orbán essentially gave the middle finger to all the soldiers and Ukrainian civilians who are dying every day" because of Russia’s attack.

The liberal politician also criticised Viktor Orbán's – sometimes barely veiled, sometimes quite open – attempts at linking the continuation of EU aid to Ukraine, which is due for renewal at the end of this year, with payments to Hungary. "You shouldn't be allowed to say that if you want more money for Ukraine, we want more money for ourselves.

We cannot be held hostage by Orbán and I am convinced that we can find a positive solution."

The President of the European Council is optimistic

EU leaders discussed the EU budget review late Thursday night, on the heels of talking about the situation in Israel and Gaza. This would include €17 billion in aid and €33 billion in loans to Ukraine. As the invitation letter from European Council President Charles Michel also made clear, an agreement on this is not expected until the next EU summit.

Speaking on Friday morning, Charles Michel said the discussion showed that there was broad support for Ukraine. Even Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who has consistently opposed budget increases, admitted that fresh funds would be needed in order to be able to give money to Ukraine.

When Charles Michel was asked about the Hungarian position, he only generally explained that the decision should be unanimous, so the meetings are about building "collective intelligence", i.e. convincing each other and making sure unity is kept. Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov was also under the impression that the Hungarian Prime Minister, along with his Slovak counterpart, was not opposed to supporting Ukraine in principle, he told Politico.

Speaking on one of the Hungarian public radio stations on Friday morning, however, Viktor Orbán said that there had been a "very big battle" on the subject, but

"Hungary is neither able to, nor willing to support" Ukraine.

A similar link was established last year too, but there was a plan B

The EU is currently providing €1.5 billion a month in aid to Ukraine, but this is being channeled from an €18 billion package, the ninth installment of which was paid out just days before the summit. This is the aid that last year somehow ended up in the same package as the plans submitted for spending the Hungarian cohesion funds and the recovery funding. Of course, the Hungarian government was not using this as blackmail, since Viktor Orbán himself said that would be equal to treading on the boundaries of EU law – although at other times he openly admits that this is what he is doing:

increasing the budget "requires unanimity. So then one simply has to hold out the bag and that's it. That's how it goes. Like this. That's the plan.”

Last year, the EU pulled out a Plan B to help Ukraine by cutting Hungary out. In principle, this could also be an option now, but the method is more complicated, and this time there are other elements of the budget review on which bypassing a member state may not be possible.

Additionally, Viktor Orbán's position on opposing support for Ukraine is strengthened by the recent change of government in Slovakia. Robert Fico has put together a coalition with his populist Smer party, (which the Socialists have suspended), just in time for him to go to Brussels as the new prime minister. According to Politico, during the discussion on the budget review, Fico spoke up about corruption in Ukraine, which would be in line with his previous statements on the matter. Both Politico and the Guardian reported that only two member states opposed giving aid to the EU candidate country: Viktor Orbán and the new-old Slovak Prime Minister.