German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has conditioned reaching agreement on the future European Union budget with the adoption of an additional 45 billion-euro aid to Ukraine, linking two issues that have caused division among member states, reports Euronews.
Ukraine faces a lack of 70 billion euros in its 2027 budget as a result of Russia’s continued air strikes. The EU has promised to cover about two-thirds of this amount, through a mechanism that has not yet been defined.
A common commitment that all of us, without exception, contribute fairly to coverage of this absence is a fundamental prerequisite for resolving this issue and discussing any other issue, especially those of financial impact, Merz said in a letter to European Council President António Costa.
By EuronewsThe German Chancellor has demanded that negotiations on the EU’s seven-year budget guarantee stable financing for Ukraine from 2028, including interest obligations from the existing 90 billion-euro loan.
Merz has also demanded that Ukraine’s financing be addressed with priority at this week’s informal summit in Dublin.
Ukraine’s support is a matter of our mutual European security and should also be the burden sharing for this support, he wrote.
Germany, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden demand that Ukraine’s financing and the EU budget be addressed in a single package.
Meanwhile, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have signaled they will be excluded again from joint borrowing for Ukraine, while Bulgaria is expected to follow the same path.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has warned that connecting these two issues would be very dangerous.
Source Layer: RTKLive