Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán did not want to agree to the statement on the situation in Ukraine that the other 26 countries wanted at Thursday's EU summit. Therefore, there was again a separate Ukraine statement from the others - just like two weeks ago.
Ulf Kristersson regrets, but points out at the same time that the majority in the EU has other countries on its side in its opinion on Russia's warfare.
As much as I regret that Hungary is not with us, I am equally pleased that the UK is really with us, says the Prime Minister at a Swedish press conference.
Ukraine and the defense buildup in the EU were again the main topics at Thursday's EU summit. The EU leaders gave the thumbs up to the buildup plan presented by the EU Commission, which has largely already been discussed at the extraordinary meeting on March 6.
Nothing new. We basically just confirmed that the big discussion was last time, says Kristersson.
The EU Commission presented the action plan "Strengthening EU" at the beginning of March and followed up on Wednesday with a white paper, titled "Readiness 2030".
The plan includes, among other things, proposals to borrow 150 billion euros that member states can borrow for joint defense procurements. Furthermore, exemptions from the EU's budget rules are proposed so that countries can allocate an additional 1.5 percent of their GDP to defense without having to worry about getting too large budget deficits.
At the EU countries' summit in Brussels on Thursday, the countries agreed to urge the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament to "quickly move the work forward".
