Hungarian Parliament Approves Anti-Corruption Amendments Required By EU

Hungarian Parliament Approves Anti-Corruption Amendments Required by EU

The Hungarian parliament voted on Monday in favor of amendments to the law regulating the responsibility of officials for bribery, one of the measures agreed with the European Commission to stave off the loss of 7.5 billion euro ($7.5 billion) in EU grant money

BUDAPEST (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd October, 2022) The Hungarian parliament voted on Monday in favor of amendments to the law regulating the responsibility of officials for bribery, one of the measures agreed with the European Commission to stave off the loss of 7.5 billion euro ($7.5 billion) in EU grant money.

The amendments to law No. XC of 2017 on criminal proceedings in connection with the conditionality procedure, passed by 136 votes for with 7 against and 14 abstentions, according to the country's parliament website.

The conditionality regime, which came into force in January 2021, is a tool to protect EU funds from being misused by member states that do not adequately uphold the rule of law, which works by withholding EU funding from delinquent states.

Hungary is the first country to have fallen foul of this mechanism. In April, 2022, the EU Commission raised concerns about systematic irregularities in public procurement, insufficiencies in addressing conflict of interest, weaknesses in the effective pursuit of investigations in cases involving union funds, and shortcomings in Hungary's anti-corruption practices.

The Hungarian authorities then committed to 17 remedial measures. However, the Commission decided to see what the concrete changes would amount to, and proposed a suspension of 65% of the commitments under cohesion policy, amounting to an estimated 7.5 billion euro, if all the measures Hungary has committed to are not implemented by November 19.