We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
{{ subpage.title }}
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden attend a European Union summit in Brussels, Belgium February 1, 2024.
The EU stares down Orban
Serial political blackmailer Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, upset other EU leaders in December by vetoing a plan meant to provide Ukraine with a multi-year €50 billion EU aid package. The EU must, Orban insisted, pledge to revisit the plan each year the money was scheduled for disbursement – with any member retaining the right to veto the plan midstream.
This is money Kyiv needs to keep the lights on, and to pay pensions and salaries, as its war with Russia grinds on. Growing uncertainty over the future of US aid for Ukraine tied to America’s November elections added urgency to the request.
Leaders of the other 26 EU member states had decided that Orban wanted to use future veto threats to give himself more long-term negotiating leverage to win new EU concessions, and at a summit meeting on Thursday, they drew a line. Possibly in exchange for quicker disbursement of the remainder of €20 billion in EU funds already earmarked for Hungary – money currently locked up over corruption and human rights concerns – Orban accepted a plan that allows for future reviews of the Ukraine plan, but without a future veto.
In short, the EU played hardball, and Orban caved.
FILE PHOTO: A truck, marked with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) logo, crosses into Egypt from Gaza, at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah, Egypt, November 27, 2023.
A dozen countries suspend UNRWA funding over Oct.7 allegations
On Sunday, France, Austria and Japan announced they were joining the US, Germany, Canada, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia and Finland in pausing their funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees. At least a dozen employees of UNRWA allegedly cooperated with Hamas in planning the Oct. 7 attacks.
Together, the countries that have pulled their money made up well over 60% of the funds for UNRWA in 2022, and representatives of the organization say they will not be able to function long without the support. Norway and Ireland, however, agreed to continue funding UNRWA, saying their work supporting the displaced and devastated population of Gaza is too important.
What happens now? UNRWA has fired nine of the 12 employees accused of cooperating with Hamas, though the details of their alleged collaboration are not publicly known. The US did frame its suspension of funding as temporary, leaving the door open to resumption. But UNRWA is already regarded with deep distrust within Israel, and the Biden administration may face pressure from its ally not to resume funding.
In the meantime, however, over 2 million Gazans are in desperate straits, displaced from their homes and reliant on UNRWA for what food and medicine they can get. Some are calling for the Gulf states to step in with funding to replace what the West has withdrawn, but no signs yet the money is forthcoming.