The EU member states are trying to reach an agreement on a change to the EU budget. The commitment includes: a huge amount of aid for Ukraine.
Disputes over the EU budget threaten the allocation of 50 billion euros in aid to Ukraine, just as the flow of US financial and military aid to Ukraine has suddenly stopped due to a political dispute in Congress.
As the Financial Times writes, on the eve of the EU summit that will take place in Brussels on December 14 and 15, the EU member states have still not reached an agreement on the creation of a common budget.
Billions for Ukraine
Brussels’ financing of Ukraine is one of the controversial issues in the broader debate on the EU’s budgetary priorities. Let us not forget that by decision of the European Commission, financial support for Kiev in the draft amendment to the EU budget for 2021-2027 was linked to other financing requests.
The EUR 50 billion for Ukraine, consisting of EUR 17 billion in grants and EUR 33 billion in loans, was combined with requests for EUR 15 billion for migration, EUR 10 billion for investments in ‘strategic technologies’ and almost EUR 19 billion for interest repayment on joint EU loans.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed the European Commission’s proposal as “comical” at the last EU leaders summit in October. This makes budget negotiations difficult, but a compromise is still possible. Experts expect a revised package to be proposed before the elections. meeting.
EU aid
The European Parliament supported the initiative to create the Ukraine Facility Fund, which will provide Ukraine with macro-financial assistance worth up to EUR 50 billion over the next four years.
The Prime Ministers of Hungary and Slovakia are blocking EU financial support to Ukraine. Viktor Orban argued that EU support is not working, and Slovakia’s newly elected Prime Minister Robert Fico pointed to corruption problems in Ukraine.
Source: Do Rzeczy
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
