EP suspends decision on EU Council budget for failure to deliver Patriots to Ukraine

The European Parliament at a plenary meeting in Brussels refused to approve the budget of the European Council until it supports Ukraine with additional Patriot air defense systems.

Lithuanian MEP Andrius Kubilius announced this on his X account, Ukrinform reports.

"Just now: The European Parliament has suspended the decision on financing the EU Council for failing to deliver Patriot systems to Ukraine," Kubilius wrote.

Earlier, Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt brought the relevant proposal to the session hall.

"As you have seen, over the last 20 days, there have been numerous attacks by the Russians on the ordinary cities of Ukraine - hospitals, power installations, apartment blocks. It seems scandalous to me that the European Council, saying that it is opening the door to Ukraine, at the same time is not even able to resolve the issue and send a certain number of anti-missile systems to Ukraine in such an urgent situation. In total, there are 100 of the Patriot systems in Europe. And they are asking for seven to protect their cities," Verhofstadt said in a speech published on X.

He proposed postponing the consideration of the issue of financing Council institutions until the next meeting in Strasbourg.