The EU intends to "damage the economy" of Hungary if Budapest uses its veto over the allocation of 50 billion euros for Ukraine.
Source. This was reported by the Financial Times with reference to a confidential plan of Brussels.
The EU is ready to stop financing Hungary from its funds. According to the plan, this would jeopardize the country's economic growth, lead to job losses, and could lower the national currency (Hungarian forint) and undermine investor confidence.
The plan was supported by many EU countries, three diplomats told the publication on condition of anonymity.
"What kind of a union do we have if we allow this kind of behavior?" – one of them said.
"The stakes are high. This is blackmail," another stated.
Budapest has not yet analyzed all the consequences of such a step, admitted Hungary's Minister for EU Affairs János Boca, but stressed that it is useless to put pressure on his country.
"Hungary has participated and will continue to participate constructively in the negotiations, but will not succumb to blackmail," Boca later wrote on his Facebook page. He condemned the idea of "Brussels bureaucrats," emphasizing that it is not the first time they have used access to EU funds to exert political pressure.
"Hungary does not succumb to blackmail," the country's minister for EU affairs replied.
Earlier, the EU used other methods of pressure on Hungary. On the eve of discussions on aid to Kyiv in December, the European Commission decided to unblock the payments to Hungary that had been frozen a year earlier – about €10.2 billion – explaining that the country had taken the measures it had promised to take to "ensure the independence of the judiciary."
But at the summit in December, politicians failed to reach a consensus on Ukraine, as Orban blocked the disbursement.
"Now Europe is telling Viktor Orban: "Enough is enough, it's time to restore order. You may have a pistol, but we have a bazooka," Mujtaba Rahman, Europe director at Eurasia Group, a consulting company, commented on the plan.
The EU leaders' summit, which will discuss the aid package for Ukraine blocked by Hungary, is scheduled to take place in Brussels on February 1.