Hungary’s Ministry for European Union Affairs has published a report warning that Brussels’s expanding financing plans for Ukraine could translate into significant budgetary pressures, reduced EU funding streams, and a new round of policy demands with direct consequences for Hungarian households.
In a statement published on Wednesday, Hungarian Minister for European Union Affairs János Bóka said the government had released a report on Ukraine’s EU financing and what he described as European Commission demands aimed at ‘tax increases and cutbacks’. Bóka wrote that over the past three years, Ukraine has received roughly three times as much financial support from Brussels as Hungary has obtained in total since joining the EU. He added that, under current EU plans, this support policy would not change in the coming years.
The ministry report argues that since 2022, EU institutions have elevated Ukraine’s financial and military backing above other priorities, including through sanctions policy and trade arrangements that, in Budapest’s assessment, have harmed member states bordering Ukraine. It says temporary trade measures and existing EU–Ukraine market access frameworks have provided unusually wide access to the EU internal market for Ukrainian products—particularly in agriculture—without adequate safeguards in the event of market disruption.
‘The ministry warns that the European Commission’s draft 2028–2034 MFF would position Ukraine as a major beneficiary’
The report estimates that the EU and member states have disbursed €193.3 billion to Ukraine since February 2022, covering military, financial, humanitarian, and refugee-related support, and including funding linked to interest proceeds from immobilized Russian assets. It contrasts the amount with Hungary’s net EU receipts of €73 billion between 2004 and 2024.
A central near-term element highlighted is an EU decision in December 2025 to extend support through a further €90 billion in loans for 2026–2027, financed via EU borrowing on international markets and backed by the EU budget’s headroom under the multiannual financial framework (MFF). The report says the mechanism is being pursued through enhanced cooperation among participating states, with Hungary, Czechia, and Slovakia not taking part, potentially limiting Budapest’s influence over follow-on decisions.
The ministry warns that the European Commission’s draft 2028–2034 MFF would position Ukraine as a major beneficiary and would integrate the existing Ukraine Facility into a broader ‘Global Europe’ framework with greater flexibility. It argues the proposal contains no explicit time or amount cap on lending to Ukraine, allowing the initial envelope—described as around €100 billion—to be increased substantially through amendments under the ordinary legislative procedure. The report claims this would be financed by at least a 20 per cent cut to cohesion funds and agricultural support.
Bóka also pointed to additional Ukrainian demands, citing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s ‘Ukrainian Welfare Plan’, unveiled last Christmas, which seeks $800 billion over the next decade for reconstruction and economic development on top of military spending. The ministry report estimates that if Hungary joined a future EU burden-sharing arrangement, its exposure could follow its GNI-based share (around 1.16 per cent), which translates into a burden exceeding HUF 1.3 million per Hungarian family.
Bóka said the Commission, drawing on European Semester recommendations and ongoing infringement procedures, is setting out what the government views as clear expectations for Hungary. He listed the abolition of home-creation supports—including CSOK—preferential housing loans, and certain tax exemptions, alongside the introduction of higher property taxes; the reduction or elimination of the 13th-month pension; tax increases including a progressive personal income tax that would raise the burden on workers; a review of tax allowances for families, young people, and mothers; and the removal of Hungary’s utility price caps and fossil-fuel supports.
He also cited the Commission’s support for a full ban on Russian energy imports, which the report says could raise household utility costs by as much as three and a half times in Hungary, as well as proposals to tax yields on retail government bonds, pursue hospital closures and bed-capacity reductions, end a youth-focused ‘worker loan’, reduce support for domestic SMEs, and press for the removal of sector-specific taxes affecting large foreign-owned companies.
‘This is the price of war policy, which the Hungarian people would have to pay if we let it happen. Let us have no doubt that the Tisza Party would carry all this out,’ Bóka concluded.
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