The European Commission continues to block EU funds allocated to Hungary to influence the country's position on migration, sexual education and sanctions, but Budapest has no intention of changing its stance, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday
BUDAPEST (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd December, 2022) The European Commission continues to block EU funds allocated to Hungary to influence the country's position on migration, sexual education and sanctions, but Budapest has no intention of changing its stance, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday.
On Wednesday, the Commission decided to maintain its initial proposal of September 18 to freeze 7.5 billion euro ($7.8 billion) in EU budget funding for Hungary until Budapest fulfills all its conditions. Now the Commission's decision must be approved by the Council of EU countries by a qualified majority. Hungarian EU Affairs Minister Tibor Navracsics attributed this decision to the fact that part of Budapest's obligations, according to the schedule, will be fulfilled later and expressed hope that the country will receive 100% of the funds in 2023.
"There is a historical trend according to which European bureaucrats want to extend their influence more and more to the member countries. And if they see an opportunity, they do so. Patience is needed here. Because, despite the procedure of conditionality in relation to Hungary, in the end we are still striving for an agreement. There are several main issues on which we cannot and do not want to change our position," Orban told the Kossuth radio broadcaster.
Orban noted that Hungary had no intention of accepting migrants in the country, spread "sexual propaganda in schools" and support sanctions against Moscow. He added that Hungary and the EU have different opinions on several important and even fundamental issues.
"Therefore, they would not want a right-wing government at the last elections, they would like a left-wing one. That is why they did not give money to the country, instead they gave Dollars to the left opposition so they could win the elections. That was the plan, but right-wing Hungary won the election. The European Commission has no choice but to negotiate. First, they put forward all sorts of conditions, some of which we found reasonable, while some were useless. But since we wanted to achieve a result, we could have also agreed on useless, in our opinion, issues and initiatives," Orban said.
Hungary and the Commission have initially agreed on 17 of these requirements, according to Orban.
"We have fulfilled these 17 requirements, and the European Commission not only accepted them, but also said that Hungary's plan was one of the best in Europe... There are already 19th and 20th requirements of the European Commission. Anyone who is familiar with the European Union and European institutions knows for sure that they always have new ideas," the prime minister said.
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. It works by withholding EU funding from delinquent states. Hungary is the first country to have fallen foul of this mechanism
On November 24, Orban said that Budapest had fulfilled the entire list of requirements agreed with the Commission. The prime minister expected that at the Commission's meeting on November 30, a decision would have been made to unfreeze the Hungarian part from EU funds. In general, the EC's requirements concerned measures to combat corruption, increase transparency of public procurement, and� strengthen the independence of the judicial system.
