The Hungarian government chose its own power over EU funds and Hungary's development – Mureşan

The Hungarian government chose its own power over EU funds and Hungary's development, and even though there were more EU fund available than ever before, Hungary lost this opportunity for development, Siegfried Mureşan said on Wednesday in response to a question from Telex.

The Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is the co-rapporteur for the next seven-year budget. He described the proposal, which consists of roughly twenty elements, as one of the most important things to be agreed upon in the current legislative cycle, because it involves two trillion euros – roughly 770 trillion forints at current exchange rates. (The twenty elements not only include the proposal that sets the size of the budget, but also the legislation that subsequently distributes and regulates the budget for various purposes.)

They want to have everything ready by the beginning of 2028, when the new seven-year budget comes into effect. To this end, they want to agree on the budget itself by the end of 2026, but he added that they were late the last time around.

As previously reported, the Hungarian government has admitted that it would use the adoption of the new budget, which requires the unanimous support of the member states and the European Parliament, as leverage. However, by the expected date of the agreement, not only will we have lost another billion euros (at the end of 2025), just like we did in 2024, but the deadline for fulfilling the conditions for the one-off recovery fund, which is outside the budget, will also expire in September 2026. There are more than ten billion euros at stake in the latter case. The Hungarian government's plan may also face legal obstacles: the EP suspects similar blackmail behind the partial release of funds in December 2023, which is why it has filed a lawsuit.

Telex asked Mureşan whether he thought the Hungarian government's strategy seemed reasonable or even legal, given the expiry date of the recovery fund and the legal proceedings.

Mureşan attributes it to the actions of the Hungarian government; if, regrettably, no funding has been provided to some local governments and companies, and added that they would like the money to reach the Hungarian people.

Mureşan recalled that after the pandemic, a recovery fund was set up to help companies remain resilient, to modernize hospitals and schools, and prepare for the next crisis. At first, the Hungarian government was late with its recovery plan, and then the plan was not in compliance with EU rules, he said. (The Hungarian plan for spending the fund was finally approved in December 2022, and the government is still unable to submit a regular payment request due to rule of law conditions, with the most obvious conflicts being those involving asset management foundations.)

The MEP noted that some member states received a 13 percent advance payment before the end of 2021, which helped them during the coronavirus pandemic, but unfortunately Hungary missed this opportunity. (It only received a roughly 10 percent advance payment around the end of 2023- and the beginning of 2024.)

Mureşan pointed out that payment requests can be submitted until the end of August, and the money can be paid out by the end of the year, unless the deadline is extended, but "there is no such proposal at this time."

He expressed his personal regret that, although there was more money avaiable than ever before – with the budget and the recovery fund – but "Hungary missed this opportunity for development". In his opinion

"the Hungarian government basically said: we are prepared to lose EU funds in order to secure our own power. So they chose their own power over European funds and Hungary's development" he said.