The European Commission is being “dishonest” about the reasons behind its delay in approving Hungary’s post-pandemic recovery plan, an MEP of the ruling Fidesz party told Hungarian public media in Strasbourg on Wednesday.
The Hungarian government and the commission had been in full agreement on every aspect of the plan, but its approval has stalled over the “political frenzy” around Hungary’s child protection law, Enikő Győri said.
She said the EU commissioners in charge of the recovery funds had made it clear on multiple occasions that that the EC was not applying double standards to Hungary. “But they’ve refused to answer whether other member states have also been sent an endless stream of questions regarding the actions they take against corruption and fraud,” Győri added.
“The use of double standards is in fact very clear,” she said. “And the commissioners have also failed to explain why it is that the talks — which were otherwise going well — happened to come to a halt right when Hungary passed the child protection law,” she added.
Győri said the commission’s disregard for the European Court of Auditors’ report indicating that Hungary’s allocation of EU funds in the previous budgetary period had been well above the EU average was another demonstration of its double standards. Hungary, she added, had also been one of the first member states to submit its national anti-fraud strategy to the EC and to have it approved. It is also among the member states that are the most cooperative with the EU’s anti-fraud office OLAF and was the first non-member country to sign a cooperation pact with the European public prosecutor’s office, Győri said.
The EC is “giving in to political pressure” and “doesn’t want to drop the issue” of the child protection law until Hungarians go to the polls next spring, Győri said, adding that this constituted an “open intervention” in the general election. The EC should apply a strictly professional approach to its assessment of Hungary and Poland’s recovery plans and should approve them as soon as possible, the MEP said.
featured image via Attila Kovács/MTI
