Merz threatens EU budget veto over Ukraine aid – media
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has threatened to veto the EU’s next seven-year budget unless all member states commit to providing more financial aid to Ukraine, according to media reports.
The EU has pledged to cover around €45 billion of Ukraine’s projected €70 billion funding shortfall for 2027, but Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic have signaled opposition to contributing to additional assistance.
Merz wrote in a letter to European Council President Antonio Costa that bilateral assistance to Ukraine is distributed unevenly and carried mostly by only a few member states.
Supporting Ukraine was a matter of our indivisible European security.
Demands for collective financing
Merz argued that a collective commitment from all member states, without exception, to contribute fairly is an essential prerequisite for resolving the issue and for discussing any further matters with financial implications.
He also called for a sound and multiannual financing perspective for Ukraine from 2028 onwards, including the interest liabilities that have already accrued.
A collective commitment that all of us, without exception, will contribute fairly to closing this gap is an essential prerequisite for resolving this issue and for discussing any further matters, particularly those with financial implications.
Political opposition and domestic pressure
Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic had previously secured exemptions from financial obligations, including interest payments, on the EU’s €90 billion loan to Ukraine agreed in December 2025.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico warned last month that linking Ukraine’s financing to negotiations over the EU’s next long-term budget would be dangerous.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis similarly argued that funds for Kiev should not be part of the multiannual financial framework, where member states do not have enough money.
Merz is also facing mounting political pressure at home amid widespread dissatisfaction with his government. According to an ARD-DeutschlandTrend poll published on November 5, only 12% of Germans were satisfied with his performance, while 85% were dissatisfied.
The chancellor’s declining popularity has coincided with major electoral setbacks for his CDU. In September, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) won state elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, while the left-wing Die Linke came first in Berlin, defeating the CDU.
Merz described his party’s performance in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as a disaster.
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