Slovakia will not participate in the next planned European Union (EU) loan to Ukraine and will again seek an opt-out, while it also rejects linking the loan to negotiations on the EU's long-term budget for 2028–2034, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) said following a meeting of the Visegrad Four prime ministers (V4: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) in Brussels.
At the two-day EU summit in Brussels, Fico expects there will likely be efforts to include a political statement in the European Council conclusions saying that a decision on a further loan to Ukraine will be made at the December meeting.
"On behalf of the Slovak government, I warn in advance that this further multi-billion-euro loan to Ukraine cannot be linked to the EU budget for 2028-2034," said Fico, adding that it would be very dangerous to make support for individual countries' demands during negotiations on the EU's long-term budget conditional on their participation in the loan to Ukraine.
Fico recalled that Slovakia had also opted out of the €90-billion loan that is already being disbursed to Ukraine. According to him, Ukraine will never repay it and therefore considers it to be a grant. The prime minister also added that Slovakia will not prevent other countries from providing financial support to Kyiv, but it will not take part in such a mechanism itself.
According to the Slovak prime minister, another coordination meeting on migration is scheduled for Friday morning, while this subject will also be on the agenda at the end of the summit.
Source: TASR
