Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have been embroiled in an escalating row – Copyright AFP\/File HENRY NICHOLLS, JOHN THYS<\/p>\n
Emma CHARLTON<\/p>\n
EU leaders converge on Brussels Thursday hoping to unlock a massive loan for Kyiv, with the much-needed funding ensnared in a standoff between Hungary\u2019s Viktor Orban and Ukraine\u2019s Volodymyr Zelensky.<\/p>\n
Moscow\u2019s closest partner in the bloc, the nationalist Hungarian leader has long resisted helping Kyiv to repel Russia\u2019s invasion, stalling EU aid and repeated rounds of sanctions.<\/p>\n
This time around, Orban is holding up a 90-billion-euro ($104 billion) loan as leverage in a feud over damage to a pipeline running through Ukraine \u2014 which has choked the flow of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia.<\/p>\n
As the Hungarian prime minister leans into anti-EU and anti-Ukrainian narratives ahead of close-fought national elections on April 12 \u2014 he appears intent on playing hardball.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo oil, no money,\u201d he warned this week. \u201cIf President Zelensky wants to get his money from Brussels, then the Druzhba pipeline must be reopened.\u201d<\/p>\n
The weeks-long spat has seen landlocked Hungary and Slovakia both accuse Ukraine of stalling on pipeline repairs \u2014 while Zelensky has called it \u201cblackmail\u201d to link the issue to support for its war effort.<\/p>\n
The European Commission moved this week to unblock the situation by sending a team to help restore oil transit, but Budapest dismissed the initiative as \u201ctheatre\u201d and refused to budge.<\/p>\n
Cue a looming showdown in Brussels \u2014 and a tricky balancing act for Orban\u2019s EU counterparts.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018No Plan B\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a well worn routine in Brussels, where Orban has held up countless decisions on Ukraine, and solutions have ultimately been found \u2014 in one famous case having him leave the room while the bloc approved the start of membership talks with Kyiv.<\/p>\n
But the frustration is palpable that Orban should renege on a loan he personally greenlit at a previous summit in December.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody wants this to be resolved,\u201d summed up an EU diplomat, saying fellow capitals were \u201cmore or less fed up\u201d with the Hungarian leader\u2019s behaviour.<\/p>\n
A German government official described a \u201ccertain momentum\u201d on the pipeline issue \u2014 seeing a chance of a breakthrough when leaders come face-to-face on Thursday.<\/p>\n
But the message from other capitals was less optimistic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill we make progress? I have strong doubts,\u201d said the EU diplomat, predicting Orban was \u201cnot going to budge\u201d on a stance playing well with his voter base at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Complicating matters, leaders are wary of offering Orban \u2014 who is trailing main rival Peter Magyar in the polls \u2014 a chance to bolster his image as a maverick on the EU stage by publicly ganging up on him.<\/p>\n
Failure to break the deadlock this week would most likely push the issue back until after the Hungarian vote, whatever its outcome.<\/p>\n
Can Ukraine hold out till after Hungary\u2019s election? Unclear, say EU insiders.<\/p>\n
Facing a budget shortfall four years into the war, Kyiv is estimated to need an influx of funds in early May \u2014 implying a decision to unlock the EU loan by mid-April.<\/p>\n
As Orban has dug in, there has been talk of alternative solutions to help keep Ukraine afloat \u2014 but a second EU diplomat poured cold water on the notion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no bridging solutions or Plan B. There\u2019s only one plan, and that\u2019s Plan A,\u201d they said. \u201cOrban should deliver on his promise.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have been embroiled in an escalating row…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[18,378,249,89,326,390,5156,3270],"class_list":["post-7023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-brussels","tag-conflict","tag-energy","tag-eu","tag-hungary","tag-russia","tag-summit","tag-ukraine-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116253583130839608","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}