Talking to members of the press after the one-day Brussels EU summit, Mr Orbán said the utilisation of the frozen Russian assets is “a dead idea.”
“We rejected this as a matter of course, we said that Hungary is against this and will not take any responsibility for it,” the Prime Minister said, adding that “had this proposal been approved, then within days, but within three months under any circumstances we would find ourselves in a war also directly. It is from this we managed to protect ourselves. This is a great success.”
By his account, it transpired that the private companies of EU Member States had on the whole more assets in Russia than the frozen Russian assets in Europe which means that in the event of a Russian response, rather than winning, Europe would lose on this. It also transpired that this arrangement cannot be defended from a legal point of view, it will qualify as “confiscation, seizure.” The Belgians would not take this risk, he pointed out. They would have only consented to it if the risk was to be shared by the other Member States as well. However, he said, “no one had the stomach for this.”
Regarding the idea of collective EU borrowing, the Prime Minister said “we were the obstacles” to it and the Slovaks. “We said that we don’t want to take out a loan collectively and to send that money, to give that money to Ukraine in the form of a loan, given that we are all fully aware in advance that the Ukrainians will never in a million years be able to repay it,” he said.
The Slovaks very robustly opposed this, “we Hungarians, too, as we normally do” and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis likewise announced that his government did not want to send money to Ukraine, he stated.
“Therefore, we asked them that even if they want to board this train and we don’t want to buy a ticket for this ride, then we shouldn’t have to board this train. So, we have stayed out of this,” he said.
Meaning that a war loan has now come into being, the Prime Minister explained. With the exception of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, all the other EU Member States have combined to form a lender community, they are giving the Ukrainians a war loan, also using EU funds. “We have stayed out of this,” he said.
In his words, this war loan will never be repaid, those will have to pay the interest and to repay the principal who provided the war loan for Ukraine. Meaning that “we have saved our children and grandchildren from them having to repay later the money sent to a flawed war in the form of a war loan,” he stated.
Mr Orbán said it is further important that “the V3 combined forces,” the Slovaks, the Czechs and the Hungarians acted together. “These three together are already in the heavyweight category,” he said. “This is promising, we will continue cooperation,” he said, adding that the bad news is that while “we have stayed out of this whole thing,” by virtue of the war loan, European leaders have helped to boost the war, and war preparations are ongoing.
“So, on the whole, from the viewpoint of the threat of the war, I only have bad news and bad experiences. That we have stayed out of this is a good thing,” Mr Orbán added in his statement.
