Orb\u00e1n threw the EU\u2019s entire support package for Ukraine into doubt last weekend when he said he would block a \u20ac90 billion loan crucial to Ukraine\u2019s wartime survival \u2014 as well as the EU\u2019s 20th package of sanctions against Ukraine \u2014 unless the pipeline was repaired and oil once again started flowing to Hungary and Slovakia.<\/p>\n
The EU is caught between Kyiv\u2019s looming cash crunch and avoiding giving the Hungarian leader a political gift, as they are wary Orb\u00e1n could weaponize a legal showdown on the campaign trail. Ukraine could run out of money by April \u2014 the same month Hungarians head to the polls.<\/p>\n
Orb\u00e1n\u2019s move prompted outrage across the EU, with European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa warning in a letter earlier this week that the Hungarian leader had violated the EU\u2019s principle of \u201csincere cooperation.\u201d That hinted at potential legal retribution, which could take the form of a so-called Article 7 procedure to strip Budapest of its EU voting rights.<\/p>\n
But the four diplomats and a senior EU official, all of whom were granted anonymity to speak freely, dismissed the notion of a legal solution to Hungary\u2019s stonewalling. Instead, they argued that leaders should focus on pressuring and cajoling Budapest to drop its veto.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t time for the legal option,\u201d said one of the diplomats, referring to the possibility of taking Budapest to court over blocking the funds. \u201cThere will have to be a political solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coming up with a \u201cpiece of paper\u201d that lays out a face-saving pledge to restore Russian oil flows through the Druzhba pipeline is a more feasible way around the problem, two of the diplomats said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orb\u00e1n threw the EU\u2019s entire support package for Ukraine into doubt last weekend when he said he would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7654],"tags":[11783,6215,35,2000,804,299,2190,2596,2661,15857,332,2663,2558,812,657,1220,1781,771],"class_list":["post-789360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ukraine","tag-antonio-costa","tag-cooperation","tag-energy","tag-eu","tag-eu-affairs","tag-europe","tag-hungary","tag-kaja-kallas","tag-oil","tag-pipelines","tag-russia","tag-sanctions","tag-slovakia","tag-sweden","tag-ukraine","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-viktor-orban","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116134717937530076","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}