Official: Europe needs new strategy on Russia-Ukraine war

The EU’s “leadership crisis” is bound up with a strategy of European countries supporting Ukraine militarily in the hope that Russia loses and fractures, Balazs Orban told Hungarian journalists on the sidelines of the European Union summit on Thursday.

He said developments over the past few months showed “more clearly than ever that this hasn’t happened”.

Hungary has made a proposal for peace negotiations to start and a ceasefire agreement to be adopted as soon as possible, he said.

Concerning the European Commission’s proposed medium-term review of the EU’s multi-year budget (MFF), Orban noted plans by Brussels to increase funding for several areas, including migration policy goals and support for Ukraine.

Hungary’s position is, he said, the EU proposal was unsuitable for a debate.

“First, it must be clarified how have the funds allocated so far to Ukraine have been used,” the political director said, referring to press reports that much of the funds had “either disappeared through various corruption mechanisms” or had “not been spent on the designated purposes”. He noted that since the EU will elect new leaders next year, any new budget draft may only be approved for an interim period.

Orban said that financial and budgetary issues could only be discussed once a new strategy had been adopted and what areas the EU would finance were known.

Hungary’s position is that EU leaders must admit the failure of their approach and form a new one, said Orban, adding that future allocations of funds could only be decided afterwards.