AFP
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 19:21
The European Commission has approved the payment of more than 900 million euros in recovery funds to Hungary. This concerns money from the REPowerEU programme. This is intended for the 27 EU Member States to recover from the energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and to provide support in reducing the use of fossil fuels.
At the end of last year, the EU froze billions of euros intended for Hungary because the country failed to implement sufficient rule of law reforms. In total, this amounts to 20 billion euros that Brussels refuses to pay out as long as there are problems with corruption and the rule of law in Hungary.
Now that the Commission has given a positive opinion on part of this amount, it is up to the Member States to adopt this decision. The Member States have four weeks to do this.
Hungarian bet
The Commission is not the only one with an ace up its sleeve. The government of Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán is threatening a veto at the next EU summit in December.
At the beginning of this month, the Commission presented a positive report on reforms in Ukraine, Moldova and six other countries seeking to join the European Union. At the EU summit in December, European government leaders will be asked to endorse this positive advice from the Commission.
According to Orbán’s government, the rights of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine are being violated because of a new language law that requires minorities to receive at least 70 percent of education in Ukrainian.
EU correspondent Tijn Sadée:
“This first ‘bracket’ does not amount to much. Hungary has convinced the European Commission a bit with some quick, easy reforms. Then the Commission must give something back, especially after it had already paid Poland a ‘bracket’ earlier this week .
Hungary has to do a lot more homework for the large amounts, the billions. For example, an anti-corruption task force has been set up with interest group Transparency International also on board. They will not produce the next report until March next year. Most likely the Commission will want to wait for that before transferring the next amounts to Hungary.
There is a great deal of uncertainty in this political jousting. The Commission could give in earlier, so that Hungary withdraws a veto on more EU financial support to Ukraine. The European Parliament calls on the Commission to keep its back. It now remains to be seen, in the coming weeks, whether the Commission will do so.”
2023-11-23 18:21:03
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