A Further EUR 2 Billion in EU Funding Is on the Way

Hungary Today 2024.03.04.

Hungary unlocked another EUR 2 billion in development funds, on top of the EUR 10.2 billion in cohesion funds already approved in December, writes Portfolio.hu.

“The Hungarian government has fulfilled two more of the 16 thematic conditions for cohesion programs, education and training, and the gender equality frameworks.

This means that just over EUR 2 billion could become available from the cohesion fund, on top of the existing EUR 10.2 billion,”

sources have told the news outlet.

As Hungary Today reported in December, Hungary has met the horizontal eligibility criteria for the EU budget with its judicial reform, opening up the possibility of mobilizing EUR 10.2 billion immediately.

In order to be reimbursed, Member States must comply with all four horizontal and thematic eligibility conditions relevant to their programs. The conditions must be respected throughout the programming period. In the case of Hungary, there are 16 thematic eligibility criteria, covering specific areas and sectors, including education, equal opportunities, or labor market reforms.

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The EUR 2 billion was officially confirmed on Friday,

as Stefan de Keersmaecker, a spokesman for the EU’s executive arm, stressed that the European Commission unlocked the latest tranche after Hungary met so-called thematic conditions relating to public education and gender equality.

Fact

The new law on teachers’ careers adopted by parliament is different in content from the one that sparked protests, and ensures the viability of the public education system and creates the basis for wage increases. Under the new legislation, teachers were transferred from public servants to public education employees from January 1, 2024, their number of hours changed, and a performance-based salary system was introduced. The daily working time of teachers is set at eight hours and their teaching time at 24 hours per week.

The grades used in the past have been retained and teachers’ salaries have been set in different ranges. This means that the monthly salary for a trainee teacher is set by government decree, for a category I teacher between HUF 410,000 (EUR 1,088) and HUF 1,065,000 (EUR 2,827); for a category II teacher between HUF 430,000 (EUR 1,141) and HUF 1,135,000 (EUR 3,013); for a master teacher between HUF 520,000 (EUR 1,380) and HUF 1,365,000 (EUR 3,623), and for a research teacher between HUF 640,000 (EUR 1,699) and HUF 1,470, 000 (EUR 3,902).

With the latest decision, the amount the EU will continue to withhold from Hungary has been reduced to around EUR 19 billion, said de Keersmaecker. About half of this is COVID reimbursement aid and loans, and the other half is so-called cohesion funds.

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Via Portfolio.hu, Bloomberg; Featured image via Pixabay