Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has threatened to block all EU aid to Ukraine, as well as the country’s future accession to the bloc, unless EU leaders agree to review their entire strategy for supporting Kyiv, according to a letter to European Council President Charles Michel, Politico reports.
In the letter, Orban said that no decisions on funding Ukraine, opening EU accession talks or further sanctions against Russia can be made until a “strategic discussion” takes place when leaders gather in Brussels in mid-December.
“The European Council should analyze the implementation and effectiveness of our current policy towards Ukraine, including the various assistance programs,” Orban wrote in the letter, which is undated but bears the stamp of his office.
He also questioned why Europe should continue to support Ukraine at a time when the United States, which has provided the bulk of military aid to Kyiv, may not be able to continue funding due to a party deadlock over further support.
“The European Council should have a frank and open discussion about the feasibility of the EU’s strategic goals in Ukraine. Do we think these goals are realistically achievable? Is this strategy sustainable without reliable support from the U.S.? Can we take continued U.S. support for granted? How do we envision the security architecture of Europe after the war,” the letter emphasizes.
Orban also added that “the European Council is not in a position to take key decisions on the proposed security guarantees or additional financial support for Ukraine, to approve further strengthening of the EU sanctions regime or to agree on the future of the enlargement process until a consensus is found on our future strategy towards Ukraine.”
As the newspaper notes, Orban’s letter raises the stakes in the ongoing standoff between Budapest and Brussels, which is withholding EUR13 billion in EU funds from Hungary over concerns that the country is violating EU standards in the area of the rule of law.
Without explicitly stating this, the letter suggests that Budapest may use its veto power to block the disbursement of planned EUR50 billion in aid to Ukraine – funds needed to finance the Ukrainian government while its armed forces fight a full-scale Russian invasion.
In addition to the EUR50 billion, Orban threatens to block the planned EUR500 million in military aid to Ukraine, as well as the start of formal negotiations on Kyiv’s accession to the 27-member union, which the leaders had hoped to approve at the next European Council meeting on December 14 and 15.
According to one EU diplomat, who was granted anonymity to discuss the confidential discussions, Orban “mined” the entire decision-making process on Ukraine as part of a strategy to pressure the European Commission to allocate EUR13 billion to Hungary. The diplomat noted that while in other cases Budapest abstained from voting on key issues and allowed the EU to impose sanctions on Russia, in this case “I don’t see this happening.”
“For Hungary, this is not a matter of neutrality. It is about leverage,” the diplomat said.
In the 2022-2023 marketing year (MY), Ukrprominvest-Agro Group exported more than 120 thousand tons of sugar to the European Union, the group’s press service reported on Facebook.
“The quality of our products, excellent transaction support services, speed in decision-making, a variety of options for packaging and shipment of products, a responsible approach to work at every stage are the factors that have become the key to the success of Ukrprominvest-Agro in the export market in 2022/23 marketing year. We plan to further develop this area and maintain our leadership among sugar exporters in Ukraine in the current marketing year,” the press service quoted Artem Semenenko, Director of the company’s Commercial Department, as saying.
“Ukrprominvest-Agro is engaged in the cultivation of crops, production of sugar, flour, meat and dairy farming. The group’s land bank exceeds 116.5 thousand hectares and is located mainly in regions that have not been invaded by the Russian occupiers.
The total number of cattle of the agricultural holding is 6.3 thousand, pigs – 12 thousand. The total elevator storage capacity of the group is 120 thousand tons. The group’s sugar business is represented by two sugar factories in Vinnytsia region. It supplies grain processing products to Moldova, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Israel, Palestine, Angola, Lebanon, Syria, and Vietnam.
Ukrprominvest-Agro comprises Agroprodinvest Group LLC, PJSC Podillya Production Complex, LLC Zorya Podillya Production Complex, LLC Vinnytsia Bakery No. 2, AF Dniproagrolan, AF Ivankivtsi, LLC Mas-Agro, LLC Pravoberezhne, and LLC Progress-NT.
The owner of the agricultural holding since December 2019 is the son of the former President of Ukraine Oleksiy Poroshenko.
Ukraine is not asking for any concessions on its way to the European Union and is implementing all the recommendations of the European Commission given to our country, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday in Kyiv at a joint press conference with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
“We have implemented the recommendations necessary to start membership negotiations. This applies to the rule of law, the protection of human rights and freedoms of national communities, greater transparency in the work of state institutions and strengthening of anti-corruption infrastructure,” he said.
Among the draft laws, Zelensky singled out the bill on lobbying, which “will add transparency to political processes and reliably protect the state from the destructive influence of oligarchs and others trying to circumvent the rule of law.”
According to him, “it is very important that the support of Europe and our other partners remains steady and reliable. This applies to defense and financial support. Russia needs to see that the world does not retreat in defense of freedom and international law.”
Zelenskyy said he expects sanctions actions to be strengthened, including “preventing the circumvention of existing sanctions, in particular by using European companies and the territories of Russia’s neighboring states.”
Ukraine’s share in honey imports to the EU in 2022 amounted to 24%, which allowed it to take second place among exporting countries, Beehive reported on Facebook, citing data from Eurostat and the European Federation of Honey Packers and Distributors (F.E.E.D.M.).
According to the report, in addition to Ukraine, the top countries supplying honey to the EU include China (36%), Argentina (10%), Mexico (7%), Turkey (4%), Cuba and Vietnam (3% each).
According to Beehive’s preliminary forecasts, the total amount of honey exported from Ukraine in 2023 will be 5-10% higher than in 2022.
“It can be noted that Ukraine holds its position in the market and has every chance to increase the number of exports, taking away market share from other major players,” the company summarized.
As reported, the investment holding EFI Group (Effective Investments) has started selling Ukrainian honey produced by one of its companies under the Beehive brand in UK supermarkets.
Registered in 2013, Beehive LLC’s production facilities of 5 thousand square meters are located in Cherkasy region. The daily output of finished products is 40 tons. The company’s capacity is designed to produce more than 10 thousand tons of honey per year. The company has two production lines: bottling in barrels and packaging in glass containers of various volumes for retail. Honey production complies with international standards such as Organic Standard, FDA, IFS Food, FSSC 22000, and Halal.
Effective Investments Group was founded in 2007 and is engaged in the implementation of business projects in Ukraine. It operates in various sectors of the economy: agriculture, pulp and paper industry, construction, gas industry, energy, creative industry, mechanical engineering and coal industry.
The Nova Poshta Group plans to enter six more EU countries by the end of the year, opening its first offices there, said Vyacheslav Klimov, co-owner of Nova Poshta, at the Kyiv International Economic Forum held this week.
“We are expanding. There are already eight countries. There will be six more by the end of this year,” Klimov said.
The company’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine that Nova Post will open offices in Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, France, and Austria.
At the forum, Klimov noted that Nova Post offices abroad will be bilingual in local and Ukrainian.
“We have made a firm decision that two languages will be spoken in Nova Post offices in Europe. It will be the local language and Ukrainian,” said the company’s co-owner.
At the forum, he also said that the company’s group allocates about UAH 100 million per month to the needs of the army. Klimov clarified that 3,249 employees of the company are currently serving in the Armed Forces, and 99 colleagues have been killed since the start of the full-scale invasion.
As reported, Nova Post has already opened 62 branches in Poland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Romania, Germany and Moldova.
As of the beginning of July 2023, the Nova Poshta network in Ukraine included more than 10 thousand branches and more than 14 thousand post offices.
The Group of Companies includes Ukrainian and foreign companies, including Nova Poshta, NP Logistic, NovaPay payment system and Nova Poshta Global.
In 2023, the European Union became the largest donor to Ukraine, having already disbursed EUR13.5 billion under the macro-financial assistance instrument and expecting to disburse another EUR4.5 billion by the end of the year, European Commissioner for Economic Affairs Paolo Gentiloni said.
“Overall, the progress is very good, and I am optimistic about the prospects that Ukraine will fulfill all the conditions by the end of 2024 and beyond,” he said on Wednesday at the 4th Ministerial Roundtable on Support to Ukraine at the IMF-World Bank (WB) meeting in Marrakech.
According to him, the EU and other international partners should be proud of the fact that they contributed to covering Ukraine’s financing gap both last year and this year, and thanks to this solidarity, Ukraine’s economy is in better shape today than many expected.
“We count on the support of all international partners. We also need to harmonize the conditions of support between international donors and international financial institutions to ensure their consistency,” the European Commissioner added, emphasizing that funding remains a key factor.
He noted that Ukraine has demonstrated the ability to continue to implement important economic reforms, recalling that the current conditions of the EU financial assistance include, among other things, judicial reform of Ukraine, improved regulation of economic activity and improved bankruptcy regime.
“The European Commission’s proposal to allocate $50 billion over the next four years will allow us to significantly help meet Ukraine’s financial needs,” Gentiloni said.
