EU braced for no deal on €90B Ukraine loan as Orbán refuses to budge

BRUSSELS — EU leaders have failed to convince Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to drop his opposition to a €90 billion loan to fund Ukraine’s war effort, according to four diplomats and officials.

A 90-minute discussion on the loan failed to produce a clear path to a deal, according to the four diplomats and officials, granted anonymity to speak openly about the closed-door talks at the European Council.

The Hungarian leader, supported by Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, reneged on an agreement among EU leaders in December to disburse the funds after Russian drones damaged the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian crude oil to their countries via Ukraine. The pair accuse Kyiv of slow-walking repairs.

According to one of the diplomats, European Council President António Costa blasted Orbán’s behavior as “unacceptable” and a breach of the terms of cooperation that underpin the EU. Costa pointed out that no leader has ever violated “this red line before.”

A second diplomat said the level of frustration with Orbán was unprecedented, but— with his Fidesz party trailing in the polls ahead of an April 12 election — few leaders wanted to be dragged into Hungarian domestic politics.

Orbán responded to the criticism by insisting that his veto was legal, while Fico insisted his country is paying the price for the loss of discounted Russian fuel.

Leaders of the other 25 EU countries have issued a joint statement welcoming the decision to loan the €90 billion and calling for “the first disbursement to Ukraine by the beginning of April.”

While they will revisit the question of energy prices later Thursday, diplomats have played down the prospect of a deal being done to overcome the veto.

Carrot and stick

The EU had hoped that Orbán could be persuaded to honor the deal he agreed to at the December summit and lift his veto, according to an EU official and a diplomat.

Another part of the plan was to give Orbán something he could claim as a win: the Commission’s mission to inspect the Druzhba pipeline. But the mission to Druzhba was something of a bust, with the team left waiting in Kyiv for permission to visit the site, which was some four hours away. Plus, Hungary and Slovakia objected in a letter, seen by POLITICO, to the fact that no one from their countries was included in the team.

And the EU’s hopes that Orbán’s counterparts, particularly German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, would exert enough pressure on the Hungarian to get him to shift his position amounted to nothing.

Koen Verhelst contributed to this report.