Hungary Blocks EU Funding for Ukraine Over Bank Listing on War Sponsors List

The EU is ready to allocate an additional €500 million to support kyiv in its fight against the Russian invasion.

But the Hungarian government is blocking the decision because the country’s largest bank, OTP Bank, is on Ukraine’s list of “international sponsors of war”.

“We will oppose the disbursement of this new half-billion euros from the European Peace Facility to arms-supplying Member States as long as Ukraine maintains OTP Bank on the list of international war sponsors. OTP is the largest Hungarian bank, OTP is an important player in the Hungarian economy, I could also say that we are all proud of OTP as a Hungarian bank.”, said Péter Szijjártó, Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency put the Hungarian bank in the hot seat because it “gives preferential credit terms to the Russian servicemen, that is, it rewards them for the war crimes they have committed”. The bank rejected those allegations, saying the reasoning was incorrect and not objective.

Although the dispute officially has nothing to do with the EU, High Representative Josep Borrell said he was doing everything possible to resolve the matter in order to unlock future payments for Ukraine.

“Bilateral, multilateral, we have to do everything in our power to get the next package of military support for Ukraine approved. If any member state is having difficulty, let’s discuss it. .”, said Josep Borrell, High Representative of the EU.

Ukraine’s blacklist has no legal consequences but calls on consumers to boycott. It contains many European companies, some of which come from France, Italy or Greece. But Hungary is the only EU member state to have raised the issue at European level.