Brussels proposes to freeze 7,500 million European funds to Hungary for fraud and corruption

Just when the European Parliament has just declared that the Hungary of Victor Orban can no longer be considered a full democracy, Brussels has for the first time activated the new regulation that conditions the payment of European aid to respect for the rule of law.

The European Commission has proposed this Sunday freeze a total of 7,500 million euros of European funds awarded to Hungary (a third of the total regional aid for the period 2021-2027) for the cases of widespread corruption and fraud in the countryaffecting the financial interests of the EU.

“This decision is a clear demonstration of the Commission’s determination to protect the EU budgetand to use all the tools at our disposal to guarantee this important objective”, explained the Budget Commissioner, the Austrian Johannes Hahn.

[La Eurocámara tacha a Hungría de “autocracia electoral” y pide congelarle los fondos europeos]

Specifically, the Community Executive has established that in Hungary there are Significant “deficiencies” and “gaps” in anti-corruption legislation and in public tenders with European funds, as well as generalized conflicts of interest that systematically favor the ruling Fidesz party and Orbán’s allies. In addition, Brussels denounces the “weakness” of the investigations and prosecutions of corruption cases, which do not translate into adequate convictions.

The decision to freeze the funds to Hungary was taken during a meeting of the college of commissioners held extraordinarily on Sunday because the president, Ursula Von der Leyentravels to London for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral on Monday and then to New York for the UN General Assembly.

The European Commission initiated the sanctioning procedure against Hungary last April, without Budapest taking any steps to correct the problems. In July, Brussels officially informed Hungary of the amount of funds it intended to freeze. only at that moment, Orbán’s government has begun to move under the maximum pressure of losing many European funds in a context of economic crisis.

Specifically, Budapest has presented a package of 17 measures, among which the creation of a new anti-corruption office with broad powersthe reform of the law on public contracts and the implementation of a new system of public declaration of assets and income of members of the Government and Parliament Parliament.

Nevertheless, none of these initiatives have been approved yetand legal deadlines force Brussels to go ahead with sanctions: the deadline to make a decision is September 21.

In any case, the Community Executive will leave the door open for dialogue. The final decision on the freezing of funds must be made by the Governments of the 27, which have a period of up to three months. If Orbán approves the new anti-corruption laws at the end of November, as he has planned, the file could be closed without consequences.

The recovery plan would be pending Next Generation from Hungary, whose endowment amounts to €7.2 billion and has been paralyzed for more than a year.

The new conditionality regulationa tool designed to combat abuses by Poland and Hungary, came into force on January 1, 2021. However, the Community Executive had not used it until now because Budapest and Warsaw challenged it before the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU).

This inaction by Brussels was harshly criticized by the European Parliament, which even threatened legal action against Von der Leyen. In the end, the CJEU confirmed the validity of the rule and cleared the way for its application in a ruling on February 16.