All 27 European leaders have agreed to a €50bn ($55bn; £43bn) aid package for Ukraine, European Council President Charles Michel said.”We have a deal,” Mr Michel wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
He said that the agreement “locks in steadfast, long-term, predictable funding for Ukraine”.
There had been fears that Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban would block the aid package as he had done already at a European summit last December.
Mr Orban had said he wanted to force a rethink of EU policy towards Ukraine and questioned the idea of committing to fund Ukraine for the next four years.
News of the agreement was announced less than two hours after the summit started, surprising many observers who had expected talks to go on much longer due to the depth of disagreement between Mr Orban and the other EU leaders.
Diplomatic sources told Reuters that the new deal includes a yearly discussion of the package and the option to review it in two years, “if needed”.
Mr Orban had been pushing for a yearly vote on the package, but this could have left the deal exposed to an annual veto threat from Hungary.
“A good day for Europe,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said on X.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was “grateful” to EU leaders, highlighting that the decision was taken by all 27 heads of state.
He also said that the package would “strengthen the long-term economic and financial stability” of Ukraine.
This funding was important for Ukraine financially – and because it needs Europe to stay united in its support.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had underlined that it was about Europe investing in its own security. He stressed that Ukraine was resisting Russia, for everyone – blocking Vladimir Putin’s attempt to challenge the world order by force.
The EU’s aid package is a little more of the stability Ukraine needs, and will help it help pay pensions and salaries and to keep the heating on over the next four years.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who had been highly critical of what he called Mr Orban’s “strange and egotistic game,” posted on X: “Viktor Orban could be ‘persuaded’… Let’s move on.” (BBC)