No Ukraine Aid, No EU Budget: Merz's Ultimatum Splits Europe | FP Explains

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has made a deal on the EU's next seven-year budget conditional on every member state helping to close Ukraine's 70 billion euro funding gap for 2027. Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria have pushed back, and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has called it a ‘textbook case of blackmail.’ Both the budget and Ukraine aid need unanimity, so any one country can block either. Here’s what is happening with the EU budget.