Hungary Loses Out On $1 Billion In EU Funding
www.rferl.org
Hungary has been officially denied some $1 billion dollars in European Union funding that the bloc had frozen because of corruption allegations.

Hungary has been officially denied some $1 billion dollars in European Union funding that the bloc had frozen because of corruption allegations.

The move, confirmed in an EU statement late on December 31, was the first time that it had taken such a step against a bloc member.

Budapest made no immediate statement about the expired funds.

That amount was part of a larger sum – 19 billion euros ($19.7 billion) – that had been frozen, dating back to 2022, when Brussels began “conditionality” proceedings against Hungary.

Those proceedings blocked the disbursements of funds because of allegations that the Hungarian government had violated rules on public procurement as well as a lack of control and transparency.

Budapest made a number of reforms that allowed some funds to be unblocked, but the deadline for the release of the latest installment expired on December 31.

That meant that Hungary lost the funding, which amounted to 1.04 billion euros ($1.08 billion).

In a report released in July, the European Commission said that Hungary did not meet EU democratic standards, specifically regarding political financing, conflicts of interest, and media independence.

    • atro_city@fedia.io
      5·
      5 days ago

      That amount was part of a larger sum – 19 billion euros ($19.7 billion) – that had been frozen, dating back to 2022, when Brussels began “conditionality” proceedings against Hungary.

      I interpret this as “before an event in the past this was case, until some event happened in the past and wasn’t the case anymore” Things might’ve changed between that past even and now. So, I’m not sure what the author is trying to say. Someone can look up the status. There’s probably some press release or paper by the EU. Unfortunately, journalists aren’t taught to link to sources.

      • Fitik@fedia.ioOP
        5·
        4 days ago

        There’s an explanation from a different source talking about the same story:

        Hungary has lost one billion euros in European Union funds that were frozen over corruption concerns, marking the first time Brussels has enforced such a penalty.

        In 2022, Brussels began “conditionality” proceedings against Hungary, seeking to block disbursements because of alleged infringements linked to public procurement as well as a lack of control and transparency.

        Budapest did undertake reforms that allowed some funds to be unblocked, but a total of €19 billion remain frozen.

        Under timelines laid out in the EU’s conditionality regulation, “the first tranche of suspended commitments” – which amounted to €1.04 billion – expired at the end of 2024 without the suspension being lifted, the commission said this week.

        This means Hungary has now lost that funding

        Source

      • boomzilla@programming.devEnglish
        1·
        5 days ago

        https://www.dw.com/en/eu-denies-hungary-a-billion-euros-after-reform-failures/a-71196557

        If I understood the article correctly the now still frozen 19 billion were part of an even bigger package where its payment required hungary to fight corruption (last on the corruption-index in the EU with 42 of 100 points and below global average). Orban vowed to do something and got money from the previously bigger funds. It seems he failed to really fullfill the requirements (as promised) and therefore the first billion of the rest of the funding was nullified and therefore is lost. I suppose the remaining frozen funding is still bound to anti-corruption-measurements.

        I hope this really is a win for the EU but I read somewhere else that the 1 billion was initially declared for infrastructure measurements in poorer regions (questionable how much would’ve actually ended there) and Orban now took a loan about 1 bln from China where the latter is investing into hungary by building factories for their BYD electric cars there.