FILE PHOTO: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest, Hungary, January 16, 2024. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo/File Photo
BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Hungary signalled its readiness on Monday for a compromise allowing a proposed European Union aid package for Ukraine to be financed from the bloc's budget ahead of an emergency summit on Thursday.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been a vocal critic of the EU's financial and military support for Kyiv and maintained close ties with the Kremlin since Russia's invasion of neighbouring in Ukraine in February 2022.
He previously blocked a revision of the EU budget that included the Ukraine aid, prompting its leaders to come up with a plan B and call an emergency summit.
However, Orban's political director said on Monday that Hungary was open to using the EU budget for a proposed 50 billion euro ($54 billion) aid package to Ukraine, a major shift in Budapest's stance from just a few weeks ago.
Balazs Orban, the chief political aide to the prime minister, confirmed on X that Budapest had sent a proposal to Brussels on Saturday showing it was open to using the EU budget for the aid package and issuing common EU debt to finance it if other "caveats" were added.
The Financial Times reported on Sunday that the EU would sabotage Hungary's economy if Budapest blocks the aid at a summit this week.
"The document, drafted by Brussels bureaucrats only confirms what the Hungarian Government has been saying for a long time: access to EU funds is used for political blackmailing by Brussels," Janos Boka, Hungary's minister for EU affairs said on X.
In case Hungary did not agree to the original aid package, EU leaders had proposed a workaround that involved a deal between 26 members and Ukraine, which would also deny Budapest access to linked EU funds, such as on migration.
The EU has suspended a large chunk of funds for Hungary over concerns Budapest had damaged democratic checks-and-balances in the country. The EU unlocked some of those funds at the end of last year saying Budapest had implemented a reform of its judiciary but about 20 billion euros still remain frozen.
Hungary's foreign minister Peter Szijjarto is due to meet his Ukrainian counterpart later in the day in the western Ukrainian town of Uzghorod to prepare a possible meeting between Orban and Zelenskiy.
($1 = 0.9219 euros)
(Reporting by Anita Komuves, Editing by Louise Heavens and Toby Chopra)
