Hungary has blocked the adoption of a potential decision on issuing eurobonds to finance Ukraine – an idea the European Commission proposed as an alternative to a loan backed by frozen Russian assets.

Source: Politico, as reported by European Pravda

Details: During a meeting of EU member states' ambassadors in Brussels on Friday 5 December, Budapest rejected the idea of issuing joint bonds secured by the EU's seven-year budget to finance Ukraine.

Politico says that this "robs the EU of a potential Plan B should it fail to find a way to use frozen Russian state assets to finance a €165 billion loan to Kyiv".

Background:

• Earlier this week, it emerged that the European Commission is considering borrowing on external markets under EU budget guarantees or reparation loans from immobilised Russian assets in order to finance Ukraine over the next two years.
• However, the plan concerning Russian assets has stalled due to opposition from Belgium, which fears potential retaliatory steps by the United States.
• According to Bloomberg, the United States has lobbied several European Union countries in an attempt to block the EU's plans to use frozen Russian assets to secure a loan for Ukraine.

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