(ANSA-AFP) - STRASBOURG, NOV 24 - The European Parliament on Thursday approved an 18-billion-euro ($18.7-billion) EU financial support package to get Ukraine through 2023, but the plan remains blocked by opposition from Hungary. Kyiv is urgently seeking billions in emergency funding for next year as it struggles to weather the economic fallout of Russia's devastating invasion. Hungary -- which has the closest ties to Moscow of the European Union's 27 members -- says it opposes joint borrowing by the bloc to fund the aid package. Instead, it plans to provide support bilaterally to Ukraine. On Wednesday, Hungary said it would send 187 million euros in financial aid to Ukraine -- just one percent of the sum the EU wants to mobilise.

The EU's top budget official accuses Hungary of barring the bloc's financial plan in a bid to blackmail Brussels into releasing billions of euros of EU funds to Budapest. The funds are held up by concerns over corruption and judicial independence. The EU has stalled on disbursing 5.8 billion euros in post-Covid recovery funds to Hungary's right-wing government and is threatening to hold back another 7.5 billion euros.

(ANSA-AFP).