Hopefully, the plan will be assessed on professional grounds, independent from "Brussels' insistence on letting LGBTQ activists into Hungarian kindergartens and schools," the Prime Minister 's Office said in response to the decision.Continue reading
Hungary’s plan for utilizing the European Union’s recovery plan has been the subject of serious debate in the EU. Although the Orbán administration has so far failed to reach an agreement with Brussels on the funding by the extended deadline, according to Népszava‘s sources in Brussels, a deal is likely to be reached within six weeks.
Hungary submitted its recovery plan on May 12th, requesting 7.2 billion euros in funding from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) for post-pandemic reconstruction.
Even though the European Commission (EC) had about two months to endorse the plan, they decided to delay its approval. According to several press reports, the EU executive suspended the decision to accept Hungary’s recovery plan because of unsatisfactory anti-graft safeguards in the country’s spending plan. The EC was quick to deny these rumors, but the Hungarian government said the decision was nothing more than an attempt to put political pressure on Hungary.
Later on, the government indicated that it is not willing to wait any longer for the recovery funds, and the tenders would still be launched as planned and that the country would raise the necessary funds from its own budget and market financing until the situation with the EU was resolved.
Meanwhile, leftist daily Népszava reports that the EC may give the green light to the recovery plan in a little over a month. If the finance ministers of the member states then also give the go-ahead, there is a realistic chance that Hungary will receive pre-financing worth 13 percent of the total (HUF 326 billion) by the end of the year or early next year at the latest.
Earlier, Portfolio reported that Szabolcs Ágostházy, the state secretary in charge of EU developments, and Gábor Zupkó, the head of the European Commission’s representation in Hungary, were also optimistic about the adoption of the recovery plan.
In the featured photo illustration: PM Viktor Orbán with EC President Ursula von der Leyen. Photo by Benko Vivien Cher/PM’s Press Office
