The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell announced Monday during the Foreign Affairs Council that EU ministers agreed on a “legal framework” to increase its military support to Ukraine and bypass Hungary’s opposition to the project.
The EU’s diplomacy chief emphasized in a press statement before the meeting of foreign ministers the bloc’s commitment to supporting Ukraine through a combination of diplomacy and military assistance. Later, he declared to the press that the EU decided to allocate revenues generated by frozen Russian assets to the European Peace Facility (EPF) to increase the military support for Ukraine. Borrell said that “we have these revenues coming from the frozen assets, and we have to look for a way in order to use them, avoiding any kind of blockage,” referring to Hungary’s refusal to provide a €50 billion aid to Ukraine last December.
The EPF is a European off-budget fund created in 2021 to finance the EU’s military actions, military missions and operations with funds provided by European member states’ contributions. In 2022, as a response to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the EU created the Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine under the EPF to finance the provision of military weapons to Ukraine. However, Hungary had persistently vetoed financial support destined for Ukraine, which has prevented European countries from obtaining the reimbursement of funds and military equipment sent to Ukraine.
For this reason, the EU had to find a “legal framework” and “legal procedure” to implement the financial aid and circumvent Hungary’s blockage. According to Borrell, the proposed legal solution will advance the financial aid to Ukraine despite a member state’s refusal, but he did not provide any details on the legal procedure itself. He said, “We understand that legally, since one Member State [Hungary] did not participate in the decision to use these assets, it has not the right to participate in deciding to which purpose they are allocated.”
The planned European financial support consists of a sum of €2.5 billion that will be allocated in two batches, the first €1.4 billion will come in the first week of July and the second by the end of the year. Borrell clarified that this financial support aims to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense, ammunition and industry but also to bypass a “structural difficulty” that had paralyzed the European military aid for Ukraine for over a year.
This decision comes a few days after the EU announced a new package of sanctions against Russia.
The proposed legal framework still needs to be discussed and approved by ministers of the 27 member states. Josep Borrell said European leaders will discuss the proposed measures under the EU Strategic Agenda for 2024-2029 at the next European Council planned to take place on June 27-28.