Italian prime minister said she supported Kyiv getting its €90 billion immediately but sees where Hungary is coming from in blocking the loan.
BRUSSELS — Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni broke ranks with much of the EU by speaking sympathetically about Hungary’s Viktor Orbán over his stance on Ukraine during a private session of Thursday’s European summit.
Meloni told her counterparts she understood the reasons the Hungarian leader had angered the bloc by going back on his word and refusing a €90 billion loan to Ukraine after having approved it in December, five diplomats familiar with the confidential discussions — none of whom were from Italy — told POLITICO.
Orbán’s about-turn has infuriated his fellow leaders and stunned Ukraine, which is running out of money as its war with Russia drags into its fifth year, and goes against EU convention because of his formal approval just weeks ago. Meloni and Orbán are both rightwingers but the Italian leader has broadly stuck to the mainstream EU line, in which the Hungarian government has been seen as obstructionist.
While Meloni emphasized in the meeting that she personally still supported the loan being channeled to Ukraine immediately, she said she understood the position of Orbán, who faces an election next month, according to the five diplomats, representing four different European countries.
One of the five diplomats quoted Meloni as saying that Orbán’s stance was “normal” because “things change” and that “if I were in the same situation I would understand it.”
The Italian government denied that. “The sentence attributed to the prime minister is totally baseless” an official from Meloni’s office in Rome said.
All diplomats quoted in this article were granted anonymity to allow them to speak freely about the discussions, which were not held in public. None of them were in the room because it was almost exclusively only leaders present. Those leaders briefed diplomats.
Oil link
Hungary and Slovakia are blocking the release of the funds, which needs all EU governments to approve. Budapest has linked its consent to demands Ukraine repair the Druzhba pipeline, which brings Russian oil to Hungary and was damaged by a Russian drone in January, weeks after all 27 EU countries backed the loan plan.
Orbán has accused Kyiv of deliberately delaying the repairs. The EU has said the issues of the loan and the pipeline are not connected.
An announcement on Tuesday that the EU had agreed with the Ukrainian government to fund repairs and send a fact-finding mission to the site was not enough to overcome Orbán’s objections on Thursday.
The Hungarian prime minister has previously been constructive and should be expected to drop his veto if the pipeline reopens, Meloni also said, according to the diplomats.
Meloni is a strong advocate for Ukraine and also maintains friendly relations with both Orbán and U.S. President Donald Trump, who has at times wavered in his support for Kyiv. She has also publicly backed Orbán in his reelection bid.
Red lines
Most other EU leaders reacted with fury on Thursday morning as it became apparent Orbán didn’t intend to budge on the loan. European Council President António Costa blasted the decision as “unacceptable” and an unprecedented violation of a “red line” in behavior, diplomats told POLITICO.
Aside from Hungary and Slovakia, the remaining 25 countries have since 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.”
In a video posted following the talks, Orbán said the discussion had been “tough, I was under pressure from all sides … but they tried this in the wrong place and at the wrong time.”