The media learned about the EC’s readiness to unfreeze 13 billion euros for Hungary to help Kyiv

The European Commission is preparing to unfreeze about 13 billion euros and allocate it to Hungary in order to further increase the volume of assistance to Ukraine. About it writes Financial Times newspaper.

According to the newspaper, the EC may unfreeze Hungary’s access to the fund by the end of November. According to the FT, this step may make it possible to enlist the support of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on the issue of increasing financial assistance to Ukraine.

In December 2022, the EC blocked approximately €22 billion of European funds earmarked for Hungary due to alleged failures to respect human rights and the rule of law in the country. In May, Budapest introduced judicial reforms to unlock some 13 billion euros.

The EU uses the European Peace Fund to supply arms to Ukraine; in June 2023, its financial ceiling was increased to 12 billion euros. 19 July Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations of Hungary Peter Szijjártó statedthat Budapest will not give the go-ahead for using funds from this fund to finance arms supplies to Ukraine until the largest Hungarian bank OTP is removed from the Ukrainian list of “international war sponsors.”

On September 29, it became known that the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NACP) of Ukraine suspended the status of “international war sponsor” for the Hungarian OTP Bank and a number of other companies in order to receive assistance worth 500 million euros from the EU. October 2 department excluded Hungarian bank from this list.