00:00Did the EU bypass Hungary's veto on Ukraine's 90 billion euro loan?
00:09The European Parliament has announced that it has signed off on the 90 billion euro Ukraine support loan.
00:14The news triggered a wave of posts on the X claiming that European Parliament President Roberta Metzola
00:19had bypassed Hungary's veto of the loan to force it through.
00:23In reality, this is not what happened.
00:26Metzola did sign the loan on behalf of the European Parliament,
00:28but this is only one step in the legislative process.
00:32For the package to take effect, it must still be adopted by the EU's 27 member states.
00:38And because the loan means making amendments to the EU's budgetary rules,
00:42members need to reach an unanimous decision.
00:45But this week, Hungary announced it would block the package, even though the loan was agreed in December.
00:50Budapest says its opposition to the loan concerns Patova the Druzba pipeline,
00:53a Soviet-era pipeline that carries Russian oil via Ukraine, to Hungary and Slovakia.
00:59In January alone, Hungary and Slovakia imported an estimated 137 million euro worth of Russian crude oil
01:06through the Druzba pipeline under a special EU exemption.
01:10Oil transfers reportedly stopped in late January,
01:12after a Russian air raid that Kyiv cleansed them at the pipeline's southern branch in western Ukraine.
01:18Hungary has accused Ukraine of blocking the line and preventing it from being fixed.
01:22Ukraine, however, said that the line repairs are dangerous and not that easy to fix without putting servicemen in danger.
01:29Matters became even more complicated when reports emerged that Ukraine struck a Russian pumping station serving the pipeline on Monday.
01:35Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban responded by ordering extra security at critical infrastructure sites,
01:42claiming Kyiv was trying to disrupt the country's energy system.
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