{"id":911375,"date":"2026-04-22T15:49:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/911375\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T15:49:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:49:34","slug":"eu-agrees-to-unblock-e90bn-loan-for-ukraine-after-hungary-lifts-veto-european-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/911375\/","title":{"rendered":"EU agrees to unblock \u20ac90bn loan for Ukraine after Hungary lifts veto | European Union"},"content":{"rendered":"

EU member states have reached agreement on unblocking an urgently needed \u20ac90bn (\u00a378bn) loan for Kyiv and a new package of sanctions against Moscow after Ukraine resumed pumping Russian oil to Hungary<\/a> and Slovakia, prompting Budapest to lift its veto.<\/p>\n

Cyprus, which holds the bloc\u2019s rotating presidency, said member states\u2019 ambassadors had agreed to launch \u201cwritten procedures\u201d for the final approval of the loan and the sanctions package, with formal sign-off on both due by Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The EU agreed in December on the loan, vital to keep Ukraine afloat this year and next, but Hungary\u2019s outgoing prime minister, Viktor Orb\u00e1n, backed by Slovakia, vetoed it in March<\/a> because of a dispute with Kyiv over a damaged oil pipeline.<\/p>\n

Orb\u00e1n, who lost to a centre-right challenger, P\u00e9ter Magyar, in elections on 12 April, accused Ukraine<\/a> of deliberately delaying repairs to the Druzhba pipeline which carries oil to Hungary and Slovakia, both of which are heavily dependent on Russian oil.<\/p>\n

Kyiv said the pipeline, which has a capacity of 1.2m to 1.4m barrels a day and became one of the most politically-charged pieces of infrastructure in Europe<\/a>, had been badly damaged by Russian drone strikes and was being repaired as fast as possible.<\/p>\n

Hungary\u2019s MOL oil firm said early on Wednesday afternoon it had been told by Druzhba\u2019s Ukrainian operator that crude oil was arriving via the pipeline from Belarus and was \u201cexpected in Hungary and Slovakia by tomorrow at the latest\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a>, welcomed the news as \u201cthe right signal under the current circumstances\u201d, adding that both \u201csupport for Ukraine and pressure on Russia\u201d were needed for Moscow to end its war.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy said Ukraine was fulfilling its obligations in its relations with the EU, including on the Druzhba pipeline, and it was now important that the European support package \u201cbecomes operational swiftly\u201d.<\/p>\n

The row over the loan, which aims to cover two-thirds of Ukraine\u2019s financing needs in 2026 and 2027, also delayed new sanctions against Moscow that the EU had hoped to adopt for the fourth anniversary of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of February 2022.<\/p>\n

Orb\u00e1n\u2019s heavy election defeat after 16 years in power had fuelled EU hopes that the funds would be unlocked, but officials had expressed concerns that the bloc may have had to wait until Magyar takes office in May before it could be approved.<\/p>\n

Orb\u00e1n had the power to block the loan even though he \u2013 like the similarly Moscow-friendly governments of Slovakia and the Czech Republic \u2013 secured exemptions meaning none of the three countries will contribute to the joint borrowing.<\/p>\n

The EU will provide Ukraine with two interest-free loans of \u20ac45bn each in 2026 and 2027, with \u20ac28bn reserved for military spending and \u20ac17bn for general budget needs each year. The money will be borrowed on capital markets backed by the EU budget.<\/p>\n

Economists have said Ukraine could start to run low on money by June without the EU loan. The bloc\u2019s economic commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, said on Tuesday the first disbursement was likely to be made at the end of May or in early June.<\/p>\n

Ukraine is not expected to pay the money back from its own funds, with the capital only due when Russia starts paying reparations once the war is over \u2013 potentially using the estimated \u20ac210bn of its central banks assets frozen in the EU.<\/p>\n

The scheme was designed last year as a way of making use of the frozen Russian funds to help Ukraine without actually confiscating the cash, a move that Belgium and several other EU member states had rejected<\/a> as legally hazardous.<\/p>\n

According to a draft, the EU\u2019s 20th sanctions package against Moscow includes further maritime and energy restrictions aimed at limiting Russia\u2019s ability to export oil, as well as a financial sector crackdown and trade and industrial bans.<\/p>\n

More than 40 additional ships are to be added to the 600-strong list of vessels banned from EU ports and a comprehensive ban is to be introduced on maritime services such as insurance, brokering and technical management linked to Russian oil transport.<\/p>\n

About 120 individuals and entities including 20 Russian regional banks have been added to the sanctions list, with travel and transaction bans and asset freezes intended to complicate domestic and cross-border settlement for Russian businesses.<\/p>\n

Crypto platforms and digital assets will also be targeted, as will third-country banks that facilitate trade in restricted military goods, and about \u20ac930m of goods, specific metals, chemicals, and critical minerals, have been added to import and export bans.<\/p>\n

Separately, the German government said the German subsidiary of Russia\u2019s state-owned oil company Rosneft had told it the flow of oil from Kazakhstan through the Druzhba pipeline to a refinery in eastern Germany would be halted from 1 May.<\/p>\n

The PCK refinery near the Polish border, one of Germany\u2019s largest, supplies much of the Berlin region with fuel, but the government\u2019s spokesperson in Berlin, Stefan Kornelius, said that change would \u201cnot significantly restrict refinery operations\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EU member states have reached agreement on unblocking an urgently needed \u20ac90bn (\u00a378bn) loan for Kyiv and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":911376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-911375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116449153357850609","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911375","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=911375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}