Orbán speaks of "Brussels dictatorship" over EU vote to freeze Russian assets

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban criticized the EU leadership for voting in favor of the European Commission's proposal to ban the return of frozen assets to Russia. He said this on Facebook.

The voting by the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU (Coreper) began on December 11. It will last until 5 p.m. on Friday, December 12, and concerns the European Commission's proposal, based on Article 122 of the EU Treaty, to ban the return of assets frozen in EU jurisdiction to Moscow. Article 122 refers to economic emergencies and requires a qualified majority vote, not consensus, to take a decision.

Orban says vote will "cause irreparable damage" to EU.

"The subject of the vote is the frozen Russian assets, which have been voted on by the EU member states every six months and unanimously approved. With the current procedure, Brussels is abolishing the unanimity requirement with a stroke of the pen, which is obviously illegal," he said .

The politician claims that the decision "will eliminate the rule of law in the European Union and put European leaders above the rules.".

"This will replace the rule of law in the European Union with the rule of bureaucrats, i.e. the dictatorship of Brussels. Hungary protests against this decision and will do everything to restore the rule of law," he added .

• Last week, the European Commission proposed to use up to 210 billion euros of the Russian Central Bank's frozen assets to provide financial assistance to Ukraine.
• On December 10, the FT reported that the EU countries are ready to accelerate the decision on "indefinite" freezing of Russian assets to prevent Hungary's veto.
• The EU plans to consider the decision on the reparations loan for Ukraine at the summit on December 18-19.