BRUSSELS European Union leaders on Dec 15 pledged to find a way around Hungary's veto on a €50 billion (S$72.6 billion) aid package for Ukraine after Prime Minister Viktor Orban blocked the desperately needed support.
The 27 leaders will reconvene for an emergency summit early in 2024 to try to hammer out a deal after intense wrangling at a twoday meeting in Brussels failed to budge Mr Orban.
The failure to commit more aid to prop up Ukraine's budget over the next four years dealt a blow to Kyiv, even after the EU took the symbolic step of agreeing to open membership talks.
"We expect all the necessary legal procedures to be completed in January 2024, which will allow us to receive the relevant funding as soon as possible," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was "reasonably optimistic" that an agreement could be reached with Mr Orban at the next summit.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed that her executive body would use the time to ensure there is an "operational solution" to Mr Orban's veto, "whatever happens".
That could mean the other 26 EU countries that back giving the aid to Kyiv could club together without Hungary to come up with the aid outside the bloc's budget.
Bu hikaye The Straits Times dergisinin December 17, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye The Straits Times dergisinin December 17, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
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