During a debate held on Wednesday 17 January at the plenary session of the European Parliament, in the presence of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU, MEPs returned to the issue of the blocking of a mid-term review of the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), which would include additional macro-financial support for Ukraine.
Twenty-six Member States are in favour of this revision, but are having difficulty convincing Hungary, which is advocating macro-financial assistance to Kyiv outside the EU budget (see EUROPE 13329/37).
Speaking on behalf of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, who was absent due to health reasons, Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib reiterated that the aim of the extraordinary summit on Thursday 1 February would once again be to reach a unanimous agreement among the EU27 (see EUROPE 13322/3). She said that she hoped to be able to count on progress in the discussions underway in the EU Council, which has agreed on the ‘Ukraine Facility’, the instrument designed to implement the EU’s future multiannual macro-financial assistance (see EUROPE 13325/1).
“The last European Council has shown the political will to support Ukraine as long as we can. But we must back this decision with adequate funding”, added Ms von der Leyen. In her view, this means revising the European budget.
The leader of Europe’s Christian Democrats, Manfred Weber (EPP, German), urged European leaders to reach a conclusion on this issue. “The question is now on the table for Ukraine: how to pay teachers, how to pay nurses, doctors, and all the soldiers?”, he declared, mentioning as well the other key points of the MFF.
On the left of the Hemicycle, Pedro Marques (S&D, Portuguese), for his part, encouraged the leader responsible for conducting the talks on 1 February, “whoever that may be” (see EUROPE 13323/3), to show leadership and “overcome Mr Orbán’s blackmail” in order to guarantee the continuation of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine.
In this respect, the option of assistance on an annual basis, recently presented by Budapest (see EUROPE 13325/1), was brushed aside by the Belgian Liberal, Guy Verhofstadt, who described it as “an open door to more blackmail”. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)