EU leaders are preparing to put a lot of pressure on Viktor Orban, who has set a dangerous precedent, on Thursday

European Union leaders are expected to put heavy pressure on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday to drop his opposition to a vital 90 billion euro EU loan for Ukraine, according to Reuters.

EU leaders approved the loan in December, but Orban blocked its implementation last month over disputes over a war-damaged pipeline.

The Drujba pipeline carried Russian oil through Ukraine to Hungary and Slovakia, but was damaged by a Russian attack in January, Ukrainian officials say. Kiev has said repairs will take some time, but Hungary insists it is already operational.

At Thursday's summit in Brussels, Union leaders are expected to invoke this week's deal with Zelenskiy to repair the pipeline with technical help and EU funding and press Orban to drop his opposition to the loan, according to several diplomats.

Orban has set a dangerous precedent

Orban's stance has angered other EU leaders, as Kiev is expected to run out of money within weeks if it does not receive new funding, and his change of position has called into question the credibility of the European Council, the EU's top decision-making body.

Orban, who is in the middle of a very tough election campaign to try to stay in power, has caused problems for Brussels before, but he has not changed his mind again, as he did now that there was a deal agreed between EU leaders.

“In December, we took a political decision – a political decision at the level of the European Council. Now is the time to implement it,” Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said on Wednesday.

“I don't want to think about a scenario where the European Union decides something at the level of the European Council, at the level of the 27 leaders, and this political decision is not implemented,” he said at an event organized in Brussels by the think tank European Policy Centre.

Many EU officials are particularly exasperated by Orban's veto, which won a waiver from paying the costs of the loan, along with the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Orban, however, has so far given no sign of relenting. “No oil delivered? No money given. It's that simple,” he wrote on X on Tuesday.