BRUSSELS – The head of the European Council is demanding that Hungary’s leader stick to a previously agreed-upon financial package worth 90 billion euros ($106 billion) for Ukraine, according to correspondence obtained Monday.
Antonio Costa, who leads meetings of European Union heads of state, sent a strongly-worded message to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban after Hungary threatened to obstruct the massive loan arrangement. Budapest’s opposition stems from its demand that Russian oil shipments resume through the Druzhba pipeline, which runs across Ukrainian territory.
In his correspondence to Orban, Costa emphasized that European leaders must stand by agreements they’ve already reached. “When leaders reach a consensus, they are bound by their decision. Any breach of this commitment constitutes a violation of the principle of sincere cooperation,” Costa stated in the letter reviewed by news agencies.
Costa further stressed that individual countries cannot be permitted to damage the reliability of collective European Council decisions, specifically referencing the Ukraine loan package that received approval from EU leadership during their December summit meeting.
