BRUSSELS — The European Commission has proposed sending a fact-finding mission to a contested Soviet-era pipeline in an attempt to resolve a bitter row between Kyiv and Budapest and unlock a major tranche of financial support for Ukraine.
“We have proposed a mission to inspect the pipeline to Ukraine,” Commission spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen told reporters Thursday, adding that Ukraine had yet to respond to the request.
For weeks, Hungary has refused to approve a €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine over the Druzhba pipeline, which transports oil from eastern Russia to Central Europe and has been offline since early January.