A week after stalling an aid deal worth EUR 50 billion to Ukraine, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has asserted that the money should not come out of the European Union budget, stating it remains a “bad decision”.

He justified his decision of vetoing the previous proposal saying Hungary’s money was involved in the budget and therefore it had a say in the matter.

“I am convinced that to give Ukraine 50 billion euros from the EU budget for five years, in which there is no money for this, and by taking out a loan, that’s a bad decision. Instead let’s make a good decision, which is the Hungarian proposal”, - Orban was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Quizzed about the possibility that the bloc’s 26 other members might broker a deal between themselves and Kyiv, Orban said he would reserve his comments.

“They have the possibility - if we don’t agree on this - to resolve this outside the budget, but don’t have the option of resolving this from the EU budget without Hungarian approval. They have the possibility, 26 members, to resolve this with a joint loan outside the budget. If this comes up, we will consider what we say.

We are not asking for anything, only that the budget should be implemented, but if they start amending the budget then the Hungarian interests will surface and we will negotiate accordingly”, - he said.