European Commission To Strip Hungary Of $7.8Bln Due To Insufficient Transparency Reforms

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th November, 2022) The European Commission announced on Wednesday that it had decided to cancel its support payments to Hungary worth 7.5 billion Euros ($7.8 billion), citing the alleged lack of progress on reforms and changes to its recovery and resilience plan.

In September, the Commission informed Hungary of its concerns over transparency and anti-corruption protection in the spending of the funds provided to Budapest by the EU. Hungary pressed for the creation of an Integrity Authority and its parliament adopted the relevant law on October 3, however the Commission remained unsatisfied with the country's efforts.

"While a number of reforms have been undertaken or are underway, Hungary failed to adequately implement central aspects of the necessary 17 remedial measures agreed under the general conditionality mechanism by the deadline of 19 November... As a result, the Commission has decided to maintain its initial proposal of 18 September to suspend 65% of the commitments for three operational programmes under cohesion policy, amounting to ��7.

5 billion," the Commission said in a statement.

According to the statement, Hungary failed to meet "milestones on judicial independence" aimed at protecting the EU budget.

The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) was launched in February 2021 in order to help European economies overcome consequences of the global COVID-19 pandemic and make them more sustainable in the face of future challenges. The RRF provides funding to the EU members to "kick-start the recovery" after assessment of their RRPs by the Commission. The RRF also envisages financial reward for efforts facilitating "twin transitions: climate neutrality and digital transitions."

Tensions between Brussels and Budapest flared up as Hungary continued to challenge the EU stance on many issues, including the common budget, migration policy and same-sex marriage. Since the beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, Hungary has been opposing arms transfers to Kiev, the training of Ukrainian soldiers in the EU and the banning of all Russian oil and gas supplies to Europe.