The European Commission announced yesterday that it will unlock 10.2 billion euros in European funds for Hungary because it considers that the country has fulfilled part of its commitments regarding judicial independence, after a year ago Brussels froze a total of 30,000 millions for non-compliance with the rule of law.
Brussels froze several matches that corresponded to the country a year ago. On the one hand, the cohesion funds for non-compliance with the Charter of Fundamental Rights, including the lack of judicial independence. "After an in-depth analysis, and after several exchanges with the Hungarian Government, the Commission considers that Hungary has adopted the measures with which it had committed itself", assured the Executive in a statement.
At the same time, also in the same period, Brussels froze another item destined for Hungary for its non-compliance to fight against conflicts of interest or against corruption. For the Commission, however, there has not been enough progress in this aspect. Thus, several programs linked to the cohesion policy, of which Hungary is one of the most benefited, will continue to be blocked. In total, they are 6,300 million euros.
Also, despite the fact that Brussels approved Hungary's recovery plan, it asked that in return it had to meet 27 "surpluses" to ensure "the financial interests of the Union". In total, there are 21,000 million euros of which nothing has been disbursed, because Brussels maintains that it has not fulfilled them either.
One cold and one hot for Orbán, just 24 hours before a European summit begins in which the Hungarian prime minister has already threatened to dynamite and reject the opening of negotiations with Ukraine; in addition to not supporting the reform of the European budget that includes an additional item of aid to Kyiv of 50,000 million euros. Orbán's spokesman hinted in an interview with Bloomberg this week about the link between Brussels' unblocking of funds and his green light on the budget.
The Community Executive, however, has denied several times that the two events are related and that European funds must be unblocked once the Hungarian ultra-nationalist gives the go-ahead to these two issues.
Hungary will not directly receive the 10.2 billion released, since the regional funds are only reimbursed once the country demonstrates that it has executed the relevant expenditure to which they are directed. During this time Budapest has accumulated 500 million in invoices, with which this amount could indeed be delivered at first.
