Hungary’s government announced this Saturday that it has accepted the European Commission’s demands to receive public funds for post-pandemic covid-19 recovery, so expects to be able to access it soon.
“The government accepted the European Commission’s demands or, in cases where it was unable to accept them, both sides reached a satisfactory compromise,” Deputy Minister Gergely Gulyás told the press.
The minister indicated that the government discussed the issue at a meeting next Saturday and will present the unspecified changes to parliament in the coming days, which could come into effect as early as November.
The European Commission has blocked the shipment to Hungary of nearly €6 billion owed to the country under the European Union (EU) Post-pandemic Recovery Fund, as it believes Budapest had not taken the necessary steps to curb corruption. reduce., among other problems. It was the only country of the 27 whose plan has so far been blocked by Brussels.
This announcement in Budapest comes two days after Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó defended that a resolution passed by the European Parliament rejecting the existence of democracy in Hungary was an insult and “an insult” to all citizens of Hungary. the country.
In the text of the resolution, MEPs no longer classified the current regime in Hungary as a full democracy, but as an “electoral autocracy”, also because of the “inactivity of the EU”.
The document listed areas of deficiencies in democratic standards and the rule of law, such as the functioning of the constitutional and electoral system, the independence of the judiciary, freedom of the press and freedom of expression, religion and association, as well as high levels of corruption.
It also warned of the precarious situation of the rights of minorities, such as the LGBTIQ community (lesbians, ‘gays’, bisexuals, transsexuals, intersex and ‘queer’), the Roma population, Jews, migrants, asylum seekers and refugees.
On the other hand, in the resolution, MEPs also accused the EU of a “lack of decisive action” and of keeping the procedure that could end Hungary’s voting rights in the Council frozen for years, calls on Brussels to use the tools at its disposal to combat such risks and regrets the delay in implementing the new mechanism that allows asset freezing if the rule of law is not respected.
The Hungarian government expects Brussels to announce on Sunday what measures it will apply with regard to the Community’s funds and multi-annual budget.
The Hungarian minister indicated that his executive branch has been conducting “intensive negotiations” with the European Commission for months and hopes that the procedures that imposed conditions on the payment of public funds will be suspended as early as November.
The government of the ultra-nationalist Viktor Orbán has already announced several times that it has reached an agreement with Brussels on the availability of Community funds, without the European Commission’s confirmation.
So far there has been no confirmation from Brussels about the alleged agreement reached.
Hungary is one of the largest beneficiaries of European cohesion policy, with more than €22.5 billion allocated by 2027.
Since coming to power in 2010, Viktor Orbán has had several conflicts with Brussels, mainly because of his measures that violate EU standards for democracy and the rule of law.
Source: DN
