Hungary could not get €7.5 billion from the EU budget. The large group in the House of Representatives believes that the country does not meet the requirements. About two months ago, the members of the European Parliament decided to no longer regard Hungary as a fully-fledged democracy.
At that time, the proposal had already been made to cut Hungary’s EU funds. The European Commission justified this with corruption and other violations of the rule of law. The money in Hungary is insufficiently protected against misuse, says EU budget commissioner Johannes Hahn. It is the first time that the Brussels government has taken such a step.
Lots of skepticism
The EU Commission has 17 conditions or corrective measures that must be met by Saturday. But these could not even “eliminate all rule of law violations that have an impact or pose a serious risk to the sound financial management of the EU budget,” it says. Many measures would also need to be monitored in the longer term to be effective. In particular, anti-corruption activities and the direct award of contracts with EU and national funds were assessed as negative.
Mandl: “Fooling EU institutions”
“Governments like that of (Prime Minister Viktor, ed.) Orban still believe they can fool the EU institutions and they think this will go unnoticed by their own citizens. But those times are over (…),” said ÖVP MEP Lukas Mandl, who was responsible for the current report on the rule of law. The standards are implemented for the population.
MEPs urged the Commission to continue pressuring Hungary. Before December 19, member states must decide whether the country’s payments will be reduced or not.
Source: Krone
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