Hungary opposes turning the EU budget into Ukraine's

According to RIA Novosti on July 25, in an interview with the agency, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that Budapest firmly opposes turning the European Union budget into "Ukraine's budget".

"The proposed budget for the next seven years for the European Union is absolutely unacceptable to us. We will neither support nor agree with it. This is not a budget for the European Union at all - it is a budget for Ukraine" – Foreign Minister Szijjártó stated his opinion, when answering the question about the funding for Ukraine in the EU budget for the period 2028-2034.

On July 16, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented a proposal on the size and spending items of the European Union's next multi-annual budget (MFF) for the period 2028-2034, which experts had previously called "unacceptable".

According to the EC proposal, the budget will amount to about 2 trillion euros. About 100 billion euros are proposed to be allocated to support Ukraine. However, Budapest, citing many experts, claims that the actual share of assistance to Ukraine in the European budget could be as high as 25%.

This is not the first time Hungarian leaders have spoken out about EU spending, especially on Ukraine.

Previously, Hungarian Prime Minister Orban criticized the way resources are allocated in the European Commission's (EC) draft budget for the period 2028-2034. According to Mr. Orban, the EU's plan to allocate about 20-25% of its budget to Ukraine, even though the country has not officially become an EU member, means transferring 20% ​​of Hungarian people's tax money to a non-EU country. This is unfair to EU countries.

The Hungarian leader also expressed disappointment that the draft budget lacked a long-term economic vision, warning that diverting resources from supporting European farmers to other targets would have a negative impact on the European economy as a whole.