Subscribe here: https://bit.ly/eudebates Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's objection to a mammoth European Union aid package for Ukraine has drawn accusations Budapest is trying to "blackmail" Brussels into handing over billions in threatened funds.
Orban, Moscow's closest ally in the EU, said on Friday he was against the bloc taking out joint loans to finance a proposed 18-billion-euro ($18.6-billion) package to keep Kyiv's government operating in the face of Russia's invasion.
Hungary’s plan not to be deprived of funds!
It is the principle of “give and take” that Hungary is trying to impose on the European Union. This Friday, November 18, Viktor Orban announced that his country was not going to accept the European Commission’s proposal to grant Ukraine aid of 18 billion euros for 2023. Less to help Russia in the war than to help herself. The European Union is not fooled and knows very well that this attitude amounts to “pure political blackmail”, as denounced by the European Commissioner for the Budget, Johannes Hahn.
Indeed, Budapest intends first to ensure that it escapes the freezing of 7.5 billion euros in European funds, a threat that Brussels is hovering over Hungary, before giving its approval to massive financial aid for the Ukraine.
Due to problems of corruption and dubious market allocations, Hungary is targeted by the “conditionality mechanism”, which links the allocation of European funds to respect for the fundamental principles of any rule of law. However, Hungary is not one of them and despite “progress”, the European Parliament considered on Thursday that the 17 measures announced by Budapest were not yet sufficient. Hungary therefore opted for blackmail. In a form of diplomatic game, the Hungarian Minister of Justice, Judit Varga, said she was “optimistic” about the possibility of finding “a compromise” with Brussels. She said she would send a letter to the Commission by Saturday detailing compliance with the reforms her country has committed to.
Orban, the permanent double game
At the same time, Hungary is negotiating with Brussels the validation of its recovery plan of 5.8 billion euros, also blocked for breaches of the rule of law. On this issue, the European Union nevertheless seems more inclined to give the green light. This is not the first time that Hungary has put pressure on the European Union, since it is also blocking the adoption of the minimum tax of 15% on the profits of multinationals.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Viktor Orban has made sure not to alienate anyone: neither the European Union, on which he depends financially, nor Russia, with whom he would like to strengthen energy cooperation. If he approved the sanctions imposed on Moscow, it was always after having negotiated exceptions. So that the Kremlin does not put all European countries in the same basket. During a meeting of his party, Fidesz, at the end of September, he even declared that he would “do everything possible so that Europe withdraws these sanctions by the end of the year .” Despite the threats, the official responsible for inspecting Hungary’s anti-corruption reforms assured that they would have “no impact on his assessment”.
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Subscribe here: bit.ly/eudebates Any deal between the European Commission and the Hungarian Government on measures that would allow the release of billions of EU funds, including the Recovery Fund, despite Orbán’s consistent trashing of the rule of law and insufficient promised reforms will not be accepted by the European Parliament, Renew Europe repeats today.
No funds shall be unblocked before a meaningful, verifiable restoration of the rule of law is demonstrated. The steps taken this far by the Hungarian Government to address the deterioration of the rule of law and corruption are far from enough, and long-term monitoring is needed before any decision can be taken. Meanwhile, Renew Europe wants to pass the suspended EU funds directly to civil society to ensure that Hungarian citizens are not punished for the corrupt actions of Prime Minister Orbán.
This is the message today sent by Moritz Körner (Freie Demokratische Partei, Germany), Renew Europe’s negotiator on the Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism regulation in the Committee on Budgets:
“By prematurely releasing the EU funds to the Hungarian Government, the European Commission would lose its credibility, throw away years of fighting for the rule of law and fail the citizens of Hungary. It could irreversibly turn Hungary into a swamp of corruption.”
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