EU to circumvent Hungary’s veto of €18 billion aid to Ukraine in 2023

EU member states reached an agreement on Saturday to unblock an €18 billion package of financial aid to Ukraine for next year.

The countries have circumvented a veto by Hungary, which has kept aid to Ukraine blocked as blackmail so that its European partners would not freeze its recovery funds because of rule-of-law breaches.

"Ukraine can count on the EU. We will continue to support Ukraine also financially, for as long as it takes," said the EU Council in a statement.

The proposal was adopted by the Council. And it will be submitted to the European Parliament for its possible adoption next week, the statement said.

Hungary is on the verge of having €7.5 billion of its allocated share of the EU budget frozen after failing to complete a series of reforms meant to address, among other issues, corruption, irregularities in public procurement and conflicts of interest from government officials.