Why is EU Increasingly Struggling to Cobble Together Aid to Ukraine?
Workers adjust the EU flags in front of EU headquarters in Brussels. (File)
Russian sanctions “fatigue” is something that increasingly more of Washington’s European allies are suffering of late, as the boomerang of what was drummed up to be “crippling” restrictions on Moscow over its special military operation in Ukraine is hitting harder at the EU nations themselves.Churning out new sanctions packages targeting Russia while funneling more aid to Ukraine is becoming ever more “cumbersome” for the European Union (EU), media reports reveal.With the energy crisis and double-digit inflation sending prices on everything from fuel, food and heating skyrocketing, dealing with domestic needs is starting to take precedence over the US-driven calls to continuously prop up the Kiev regime.Countries on the European continent are starting to question the need for supporting Ukraine to their own detriment, and are displaying hesitancy regarding new “Russia sanctions.” All the more so, as their populations, reeling from the household bills and plummeting purchasing ability, are demanding from EU countries’ leaders pushback to sanctions and wondering why more diplomatic effort isn’t being put into seeking a negotiated solution to the Ukraine crisis.
WorldEU Slow With New Russia Sanctions Due to Lack of Tools, ‘Sanction Fatigue’ – SourceYesterday, 18:03 GMT
Sanctions ‘Fatigue’
On November 9, the European Union (EU) Commission unveiled the whopping $18 billion-worth aid package for Ukraine, which, if passed, would come in the form of “highly concessional loans, disbursed in regular instalments as of 2023”. The passing of the Ukraine aid package would require a unanimous vote from the 27 EU countries.However, Hungary lost no time in voicing its open opposition to the plan. Péter Szijjártó, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, pointed out that his country had done its share by providing Ukraine’s health, education, cultural and religious institutions with hundreds of millions of euros as part of support amid the COVID-19 pandemic.”We will certainly not support any kind of joint EU borrowing in this field. Why? Because we have already done it once. We supported joint borrowing during the coronavirus epidemic, and that was more than enough,” Szijjártó was cited by local media as sayingThe Hungarian minister previously slammed the sanctions on Russia over its special military operation in Ukraine a “total failure.” Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, has spent months criticizing the European Union over its self-harming Russia sanctions policy. Budapest refused to allow NATO military equipment to be transferred to Ukraine through Hungary, while repeatedly calling for urgent peace negotiations between Moscow and the West to end the security crisis.Moscow has stated on many occasions that is ready to resume full-scale talks with Kiev, but so far the authorities there, starting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and ending with his countless advisers, have rejected negotiations.
Energy Crisis in EuropeHungary’s Orban Declares War on Brussels’ Russia Sanctions Policy in Closed Door Party Meeting22 September, 11:07 GMTHungary’s pushback comes as a swell of popular protests has been welling up across the EU over the cost of living crisis and the hurtful spillover from the sanctions regime.Workers in Athens, Greece, opted for a one-day walkout that was supported by trade unions, such as the General Confederation of Greek Worker and the Supreme Administration of Greek Civil Servants Trade Union (ADEDY.) Wages, claimed the striking workers, were failing to keep pace with skyrocketing inflation.”The workers of our country, both in the public and in the private Sector, are fighting against the accuracy that is strangling households and citizens,” read a statement by ADEDY.In France, public transport workers and other staff in the capital and across the Ile-de-France region resorted to industrial action over wages and the cost of living crisis. Earlier, on September 27, staff of transnational energy groups TotalEnergies and Esso-ExxonMobil demanded a salary increase of at least 10 percent against the background of inflation.Czech capital Prague witnessed thousands of people turn out in October to protest elevated energy costs and to assure that direct contracts with gas suppliers, including Russia, were in place. A smaller-scale rally was reportedly held in another major Czech city – Brno.“Russia is not our enemy, the government of warmongers is the enemy,” one of the speakers said during the demonstration, local media reported.In Rome, an estimated 100,000 protesting Italians flocked to the streets recently, calling on the government to end weapons shipments to Ukraine. The rally was reportedly organized by trade unions, numerous Catholic associations, and peace groups.
WorldThousands of Czech Protesters Demand New Government, Gas Talks With Russia – Reports28 October, 23:35 GMTWith the European Parliament conceding that close to half of Greeks and 43 percent of the population of Italy look favorably on lifting sanctions against Moscow, governments across the European continent are going to have ever more difficulty caving to Washington’s pressure to continuously pump aid to Ukraine. With the specter of “war fatigue” increasingly eroding support for Kiev across the European continent, people in the US are also beginning to show a desire for a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine conflagration, according to a recent poll. Over 50 percent of the respondents were supportive of negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict, showed the survey carried out by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and Data for Progress.Speaking ahead of the November midterm elections in the US, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on October 18 that Ukraine need not expect to receive blank checks for aid if Republicans took back the House. Similar scepticism of endlessly funneling aid to Ukraine was expressed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), reelected on November 8 in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.As fissures start to show, it’s an open question as to how long European governments can continue to succumb to pressure from the Biden administration to maintain exhaustive spending regardless of the bloc’s economic difficulties.
WorldBackfiring Russia Sanctions May Fuel Growing US-EU Rift Amid ‘Fracturing of Support’ for KievYesterday, 06:47 GMT
