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It has been a priority for Denmark during the EU presidency to support Ukraine.
That is what Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) says at a press conference after the EU summit.
Here she expresses her satisfaction that the leaders of the EU countries succeeded in agreeing on money for Ukraine.
– We have found a solution today that secures 90 billion euros for Ukraine.
– It is a loan that Ukraine will not have to repay until Russia pays compensation. In this way, our support for Ukraine is secured, says Mette Frederiksen.
However, the solution did not end up being the proposal for a compensation loan to Ukraine from the frozen Russian funds, which Mette Frederiksen backed before the summit.
– I backed one solution before the summit, but I think the result has turned out reasonably well, says Mette Frederiksen.
However, Mette Frederiksen had – like a number of other EU country leaders – hoped that the loan could be taken directly from the frozen Russian funds.
In that way, the EU’s and the EU countries’ own budgets would not have been burdened.
Instead, it now ends with the EU itself having to take out a loan of 90 billion euros, which is then given interest-free to Ukraine. In this way, the EU countries assume the costs of the loan.
If Russia does not pay compensation in a peace agreement, it will, as a rule, also be the taxpayers of the EU countries who repay the loan.
Three EU countries are allowed to stand outside the loan. In other words, they will not have to pay for Ukraine.
They are Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Thus, the EU’s support for Ukraine now shrinks from 26 countries to 24 countries.
Hungary has long been opposed to support for Ukraine.
However, Mette Frederiksen does not fear that support for Ukraine is beginning to crumble in the EU.
– I look at the result, and today is an example that when something is necessary, we are able to deliver.
– But many leaders are under national pressure in their parliaments, and unfortunately that changes the mood in Europe. That is what Putin is hoping for, says Mette Frederiksen.