Growing EU divisions see financial aid for Ukraine blocked

EU leaders are furious with Hungary for blocking an eighteen billion euro financial aid package for Ukraine, the first tranche of which is due to be released to Kiev next month.

According to Press TV, finance ministers from the twenty-seven-nation bloc came together on Tuesday to try and resolve the impasse, but the meeting ended in failure.

This debacle follows a European Commission proposal last week to freeze 7.5 billion euro in funding to Hungary from the EU budget amid claims that Budapest is not meeting the bloc’s rule of law standards. Aside from Ukraine, EU finance ministers have major problems closer to home. The energy crisis in the EU, resulting from sanctions against Russia, is getting worse by the day. The European Commission warns of economic disaster if EU nations continue to subsidize high energy costs in an ad hoc emergency fashion.

Out of control energy prices are making the costs of living crisis in the EU unbearable for households and businesses. Eurozone inflation is at ten percent. The European Central Bank is aggressively increasing interest rates to try and tackle the problem.