Orban: Ukraine's membership will cost EU 2.5T euros

The hasty accession of Ukraine to the European Union (EU) will cost 2.5 trillion euros and will cause irreparable losses for the budgets of the union countries, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at a meeting of the Carpathian Basin Forum in Budapest, Report informs via TASS.

Orban called the claims of EU leaders that Ukraine's integration into European structures can be carried out with minimal costs false:

"Full integration of Ukraine, calculated over several years, will cost approximately 2.5 trillion euros, which is 12 times more than the total EU budget," the head of government said.

Orban warned that the costs of restoring Ukraine will also be enormous: according to the most conservative estimates, they will amount to 500 billion euros, and according to Ukrainian sources, up to 1 trillion euros.

"In addition, maintaining the functioning of the Ukrainian state already costs 100 billion euros a year," the prime minister added.