/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/UHCCK4DTIFI45LXFQZL6D6G4XM.jpg?fit=%2C&quality=89&ssl=1 "EU govt holds up billions for Hungary amid tug-of-war over Ukraine")
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European Union flags fly exterior the European Fee in Brussels, Belgium November 8, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Picture Purchase Licensing Rights
BRUSSELS, Dec 13 (Reuters) – The European Union govt mentioned on Wednesday it was ready for a closing step from Hungary to unlock Budapest’s entry to billions of euros hitherto frozen over issues Prime Minister Viktor Orban had broken democratic checks-and-balances.
The European Fee mentioned Hungary’s newest judicial reforms should first be printed within the nation’s official journal to be absolutely enacted, which might then permit the Brussels-based govt to unfreeze as much as 10 billion euros in growth help for Budapest from the bloc’s shared finances.
The bloc had hoped unlocking the cash would assist sway Orban. However his senior aide bid for as much as 30 billion euros in feedback to Bloomberg on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the Fee responded by elevating the stakes additional because the EU is locked in a deepening tug-of-war with Hungary over assist to Ukraine, which Orban threatens to veto at a summit of the bloc’s leaders in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.
Reporting by Benoir van Overstraeten and Gabriela Baczynska, writing by Piotr Lipinski
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