EU leaders fail to break Orban’s block on €90B Ukraine loan

European leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday failed to convince Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to lift his blockade on a crucial €90 billion EU loan to Ukraine.

The European Council gathered to discuss the war in the Middle East, the resulting energy crisis, and continued assistance for Ukraine.

The loan, agreed by EU leaders in December, remains stalled by Orbán, who faces a difficult election at home next month. His opposition is tied to a dispute with Ukraine over the damaged Druzhba pipeline. Orbán insists Hungary must retain access to cheaper Russian oil and accuses Ukraine of obstructing deliveries through the pipeline.

“We are waiting for the oil. Everything else is just fairy tales. We believe only facts. Oil should arrive in Hungary, and then this is a new chapter. Until then, we cannot support any pro-Ukrainian proposal,” Orbán told reporters ahead of the meeting.

The EU had granted Hungary and Slovakia an exemption on sanctioned Russian oil delivered via Druzhba. However, the pipeline was damaged in a Russian strike in January and has been offline since. The European Commission and Ukraine have agreed to work on restoring it. Meanwhile, Croatia has offered the JANAF pipeline as an alternative route, but Hungary has continued to stall, insisting on its right to rely exclusively on Russian supplies—something Orbán says is vital to the country’s economy.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said Croatia is fully capable of meeting the oil needs of both Hungary and Slovakia.

“MOL has ordered 13 tankers arriving in Omišalj, all filled with non-Russian oil. Four to five have already been unloaded, and that oil has been transported via JANAF to refineries in Százhalombatta and Bratislava. This amounts to around 1.5 million tons over the past month. Multiplied over a year, it is clear that Croatia can meet the oil needs of both Hungary and Slovakia,” Plenković said.

Several EU leaders expressed strong frustration with Orbán. Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten called Hungary’s veto unacceptable and stressed that support for Ukraine must be delivered quickly. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said Orbán was using Ukraine as a political tool in his election campaign.

Orbán’s campaign has taken a strongly anti-Ukraine tone, suggesting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is trying to draw Europe into war. Despite securing an opt-out from contributing to the loan’s costs—alongside the Czech Republic and Slovakia—Orbán continues to block the package.