Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s cabinet lifted a veto on partially reimbursing EU countries for weapons they send to Kyiv, reversing a two-year blockade caused by the previous government of Viktor Orbán, News.Az reports, citing Politico.
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The change in policy was announced on Monday by Hungary’s ambassador to the Political and Security Committee, the Council body overseeing security and defense policy, an official in the room at the time told POLITICO. The decision was confirmed by five additional EU diplomats.
The European Peace Facility is an off-budget EU funding mechanism that reimburses countries for about 40 percent of the value of arms they send to Ukraine from their own stocks.
Because EPF decisions require unanimity among member states, Hungary was able to block the mechanism through the EU’s foreign-policy decision-making process.
That created a backlog of more than €40 billion in reimbursements, enraging big donor countries like Germany and the Netherlands. It also forced the EU to hunt for workarounds to ensure that Ukraine continued receiving crucial deliveries of arms and ammunition at a time of maximum danger from Russian forces.
Budapest’s decision to lift its EPF veto immediately frees up €6.6 billion in reimbursements, with more to follow.
