Zoran Milanovic and the Hungarian Prime Minister met during their holiday.Continue reading
Croatian President Zoran Milanovic has criticized the European Commission’s proposal to suspend part of the EU funds for Hungary.
“This is a catastrophe. I will be the first to fight to prevent this from happening to Hungary,” Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said in response to the European Commission’s proposal to suspend part of the EU funds for Hungary, according to Croatian public television (HRT).
The Croatian head of state was speaking to journalists at a business conference in Zagreb on Wednesday.
The social democrat politician said that one should never tire of objective criticism when Prime Minister Viktor Orbán does something wrong in certain cases.
“But to take two-thirds of the money away from him? What is the next step, push him to Russia?”,
he asked.
The Croatian politician called the European Commission “Brussels smart-alecks.”
Last week on Sunday, Johannes Hahn, the Commissioner for Budget and Administration, announced that the European Commission proposed “budget protection measures” to the Council of the EU under the conditionality regulation, in order to “ensure the protection of the EU budget and the financial interests of the EU against breaches of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary.”
The Commission proposed a suspension of 65 percent (7.5 billion euros) of the commitments for three operational programs under cohesion policy and a prohibition to enter into legal commitments with the public interest trusts for programs implemented in direct and indirect management.
Featured photo via Ured predsjednika Republike Hrvatske/Tomislav Bušljeta, Dario Andrišek