March 19, 2026
Germany, Finland, others push back against Hungary
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo notified reporters on arrival in Brussels that he believed Hungary’s Prime Minister Orban was mainly focutilized on election grandstanding as he seeks a fifth term in office.
“He’s utilizing Ukraine as a weapon in his election campaigning, and it’s not good. We had a deal, and I consider that he betrayed us,” Orpo declared.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz notified German lawcreaters on the eve of the summit that “the guiding principle of the European Union is one of loyalty and reliabilitly.”
He accutilized Orban of “setting up this blockade in Europe now for domestic political reasons and becautilize of an election campaign that is being conducted there.”
Like Orpo, Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever alluded to Hungary’s prior agreement to the statement on Ukraine assistance, declareing it was “unacceptable” to refutilize to “execute” a prior decision.
Austria‘s chancellor, Christian Stocker, declared that if Orban was indeed utilizing the election as a pretext, “this is not a valid argument given the situation in Ukraine, the plight of the people in Ukraine, and what we ourselves have decided.”
https://p.dw.com/p/5AiHr
March 19, 2026
What has Viktor Orban declared about a Ukraine loan deal and Russian oil supplies?
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, fighting for his political survival in a fierce general election campaign against a breakaway conservative rival, has threatened to block a major financial assistance package for Ukraine unless Russian oil imports via the Druzhba pipeline are reactivated.
The pipeline has been out of service since January, when Ukraine declared it was damaged as a result of Russian attacks. Hungary, however, has questioned the necessary to shut down the pipeline, calling for an EU team to analyze the damage and repair it if necessary.
“I will never support any kind of decision here which is in favor of Ukraine,” Orban declared, as he arrived in Brussels on Thursday. “The Hungarian position is very simple. We are ready to support Ukraine when we receive our oil, which is blocked by them.”
Hungary and Slovakia were granted special dispensation from EU sanctions on Russian oil deliveries imposed after the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This was on the basis that the landlocked countries, both led by politicians still maintaining comparatively warm ties to Moscow, were particularly depfinishent on the Russian exports.
Orban has described the oil’s supply as “existential for Hungarians.”
Ahead of the meeting, Slovakian Prime Minsiter Robert Fico also withdrew his support for a planned summit statement on Ukraine becautilize it did not include the pipeline oil delivery issue as he had requested.
“This is being rejected for incomprehensible reasons,” he notified the Slovak parliament. “I will not vote for the conclusions on Ukraine.”
https://p.dw.com/p/5AiGL
Welcome to our coverage
Hello and welcome to our updates from the two-day EU leaders’ summit in Brussels, which is likely to wrap up on Friday morning.
The meeting is sure to be influenced in large part by the developments in Iran and the wider region since the first US and Israeli strikes on February 28.
But EU leaders are also attempting to utilize the meeting to ensure that the conflict in Ukraine is not forobtainedten, while the Trump administration’s eye and military equipment are squarely focutilized on a different region.
Hungary, in particular, could create this difficult. Its prime minister, Viktor Orban, is calling for the repair and or reactivation of a Russian oil pipeline in Ukraine that until recently supplied Hungary and Slovakia. The two countries had been granted exemptions to EU sanctions on Russian oil imports.
https://p.dw.com/p/5Ai7A
