EU proposes 100-bn-euro fund for Ukraine alongside 2028-2034 budget • FRANCE 24 English

EU proposes 100-bn-euro fund for Ukraine alongside 2028-2034 budget • FRANCE 24 English

The European Commission is proposing establishing a fund of up to a hundred billion euros to support war torn Ukraine during the block’s next 2028 2024 budget period. EU budget chief Potrain said this is a long-term commitment to Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction. He added the money would be outside the ceiling of the budget. Well, let’s hear from the president of the European Commission, Oslo. We are setting aside 100 billion euros for Ukraine. You know, we have the Ukraine facility for reconstruction. It was initially with the midterm review filled with 50 billion. These are slowly but surely going down in the amounts and therefore we are suggesting 100 billion euros to fill up again the Ukraine facility to support recovery resilience and of course their pass to the EU membership. President of the European Commission Leavand Lion. Let’s bring in Dave Kiting. Dave of course our Europe correspondent joining us live from Brussels. Uh Dave, we need your intake here because it strikes me there are two elephants in this particular room, Slovakia and Hungary. Uh are they on side with this? Well, in terms of the spending, we haven’t heard a major objection from them from uh this this part of the budget. Actually, what Hungary is complaining about more is that this budget is going to explicitly link following the rule of law to receiving EU funds. And also quite interestingly the frozen EU funds that would be withheld from Hungary or any other government found to be breaking the rule of law would actually go to NOS’s which is a particular needle toward Victor Orban. In terms of this funding it was expected this amount uh it’s out of a total budget line item of 200 billion for foreign affairs. That’s a big change from the previous budget. And in general, this long-term budget is pretty different from the previous one because it has new elements of uh flexibility. And that’s precisely because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with the experience of that during President Fonder’s first term because normally these seven-year budgets are locked in. They’re really rigid. Now, we have this new trans uh flexibility introduced where funding can go toward emergency situations. Of course, this 100 billion uh euros that’s been pledged to Ukraine, not flexible. that’s definitely going to Ukraine. Uh that’s part of an overall €2 trillion euro long-term budget. That’s up from the current budget term of 1.2 trillion. So a big increase, but the commission says it’s necessary for these unprecedented and challenging times that the EU finds itself in. Indeed, they are such times indeed, Dave, aren’t they? with the weaponry coming from the United States in some way, shape or form via various different uh ways finding its way to Ukraine and this concept of the this big uh budget uh being put aside to help Ukraine. Is it some kind of dovetailing of of efforts to help Ukraine in this fight against Russia? Would you view it as that? Well, certainly I think we that the news from the United States that essentially the US will not block European countries from purchasing weapons to give to Ukraine was very welcome in Kev. Today’s announcement will be very welcome in Kev. We are seeing a big movement towards increased weapons uh supplied to Ukraine, increased funding and that’s going to be very encouraging. However, it should be kept in mind here that the money that we’re talking about in this fund is over the next long-term up to 2034. Uh so in the short term it doesn’t really do much to help Ukraine. Uh and certainly when we’re talking about long-term uh weapons deliveries, it doesn’t do much to help Ukraine right in this moment. So I think for Ukraine that the big key here is the diplomacy aspect. Can Donald Trump, if Donald Trump kind of maintains his annoyance with Vladimir Putin as we seem to be in the current period, at least for this week, that’s probably more key to them at this moment than some of this funding which is more long-term. A second vote on Russian sanctions uh David has led nowhere. Tell us why. Yeah, we’re still having Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fitzo blocking this 18th package of sanctions against Russia. That package calls for the complete phase out of Russian energy imports by 2028. Uh Slovakian government is saying they can’t do that, that it would hurt their economy too much. They’ve been offering all kinds of concessions, an emergency break to allow them to import Russian gas if the price spikes too much, a study to see how the uh Slovakia would be impacted, dedicated funding for Slovakia. Robert Fitzo is not budging even as today as these talks continued and this is starting to look more ideological than about actual economic concerns for Slovakia. Of course, Robert Robert Fitzo is no friend to Ukraine. like uh Victor Orban, they are calling for Ukraine to essentially surrender in the war and for Russia to be able to have a negotiated peace. Uh so it seems like the that the talks are going to have to have now are turning more political and that is really irritating a lot of people here in Brussels particularly you can tell the uh foreign chief foreign affairs chief for the EU Kaya Kalis who said yesterday that she is very sad about the way that Slovakia is behaving. But because this requires unonymity because it’s a foreign policy issue, they have to get Robert Fitzo’s ascent to launch this latest package of sanctions and to have this plan to phase out the Russian oil and gas. Dave Keiting, as always, thank you very much indeed. Dave Keiting, our correspondent there in Brussels.

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed establishing a fund of up to 100 billion euros ($115 billion) to support war-torn Ukraine during the bloc’s next 2028-2034 budget period. “This is a long-term commitment to Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction,” budget chief Piotr Serafin said, adding the money would be “outside the ceiling” of the budget. FRANCE 24’s Dave Keating reports from Brussels.
#Ukraine #Russia #EU

🔔 Subscribe to France 24 now: https://f24.my/YTen
🔴 LIVE – Watch FRANCE 24 English 24/7 here: https://f24.my/YTliveEN

🌍 Read the latest International News and Top Stories: https://www.france24.com/en/

Like us on Facebook: https://f24.my/FBen
Follow us on X: https://f24.my/Xen
Bluesky: https://f24.my/BSen and Threads: https://f24.my/THen
Browse the news in pictures on Instagram: https://f24.my/IGen
Discover our TikTok videos: https://f24.my/TKen
Get the latest top stories on Telegram: https://f24.my/TGen