Hungary seeks to block not decisions on Ukraine necessarily, but rather all Western decisions

Dmytro Tuzhanskyi, director of the Institute of Central European Strategy, founder of the Re:Open Ukraine project, shared his opinion with Espreso TV.

 "Hungary uses every opportunity not to block Ukraine necessarily, but to block everything that Brussels or the West wants. We can see this, for example, from the ratification by the Hungarian parliament of the decision on the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO. That is, Hungary is the last country to do it after Turkey," he emphasized.

According to the expert, the country's president, Viktor Orbán, raises the stakes because of his own relations with the EU and NATO as Hungary has not received any funds from the European Union for 2 years.  About EUR 14 billion of Hungarian assets are frozen, of which 5.5 billion belong to the Recovery Fund, the rest to structural funds.

Hungary risks losing the Recovery Fund by the end of the year if the procedure is not launched. These finances are critical for Hungary. Losing these funds is unlikely to result in default, but there are already big questions regarding how the economy and the country will survive this winter. Hungary's outgoings are frozen or substantially cut. Therefore, for Viktor Orban, these are vital funds. He goes all-in, bluffs, raises the stakes," notes Dmytro Tuzhanskyi.

• On November 30, the European Commission recommended blocking the allocation of EUR 7.5 billion to Hungary.  After Brussels' refusal to grant Hungary part of the EU funds due to law abuses, Budapest vetoes decisions that require the unanimity of all 27 member states.
• On December 6, at a meeting of the EU Council, Hungary spoke out against the adoption of the European Commission's proposal to allocate EUR 18 billion in financial aid to Ukraine in 2023.  Experts believe that this may be an element of blackmail considering the fact that the European Commission does not agree to provide Hungary with part of the EU funds due to law abuses.
• On December 8, the Financial Times wrote that Hungary opposed the EU's planned new package of anti-Russian sanctions.