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EU Calls For €7.5-B Slash In Funds From Hungary Over Corruption Issues
- By The Financial District
- Sep 19, 2022
- 2 min read
The European Commission on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022, called for an estimated €7.5 billion in European funds to be withheld from Hungary over corruption concerns., Alice Tidey reported for Euronews.
Photo Insert: Hungary's Parliament
Commissioner Johannes Hahn, in charge of Budget and Administration, said the figure amounts to 65% of the commitments for three operational programs under cohesion policy and about a third of cohesion funds the country received from the EU budget.
EU cohesion funds are given to poorer European countries to help promote growth and employment, while operational programs surround more specific investment projects.
For Brussels, the recommendation to the Council to adopt this punitive measure is the next step in the rule of law mechanism process that it triggered against Hungary in April.
The mechanism, which was approved by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) just weeks earlier following a challenge from Budapest and Poland, allows Brussels to impose financial sanctions on member states "to protect the budget" if they are deemed to have breached core EU values.
The decision to impose the financial penalty was taken unanimously by commissioners, Hahn said, during their College meeting exceptionally held earlier in the morning. Hahn emphasized that Budapest has outlined 17 remedial measures since Brussels triggered the conditionality mechanism.
He said that these "should in principle be capable of addressing the issues described in the notification," including "systematic irregularities" in the public procurement process, conflict of interest from government officials, and weakness in the investigation and prosecution in cases regarding EU funds.
The council now has one month to decide whether to go ahead with the Commission's recommendation. If it does, Hungary will also be given one month to reply -- although it can request an extension -- which means that the earliest the Commission could freeze funds to Budapest would be November 19, 2022.
