No breakthrough expected at EU Foreign Ministers’ meeting on April 21 on granting 90 billion loan to Ukraine
The next meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the European Union will be held in Luxembourg on April 21. Earlier, the head of European diplomacy, Kaia Kallas, reported that the agenda will include a 90 billion loan for Ukraine and the 20th package of sanctions against Russia, which, according to her, are “long overdue to be unblocked.” However, European diplomats believe that these issues should be considered after the new Hungarian government fully comes to power.
“This is still the current government, so I don’t expect any significant changes to be announced, but we hope. we need to unblock several issues regarding our support for Ukraine. And the most important one right now is 90 billion,” the diplomats emphasized.
According to them, a European Commission team is currently working in Budapest, which is an unprecedented step. It includes the head of the Office of the President of the European Commission and several directors-general. They intend to discuss these issues with representatives of the future Hungarian government.
Two diplomats suggested that the current Hungarian Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártó, would not attend the meeting of EU ministers. One of them added: “I would be very surprised if he showed up.” At the same time, officials say, Kallas will raise the topic of recent scandals related to the leak of information from Budapest to Moscow during this meeting.
“It is expected that at this ministerial level she will reaffirm the importance of confidentiality and what we call the principle of sincere cooperation as the basis of how we conduct business in the EU and work as a community,” European diplomats said.
