€2 Billion of Additional EU Funding Unlocked for Hungary
This comes in addition to the €10.2 billion of COVID recovery and EU cohesion funds released in December 2023.
This comes in addition to the €10.2 billion of COVID recovery and EU cohesion funds released in December 2023.
The adopted amendments to the Regulation on Wholesale Energy Market Integrity and Transparency, designed to respond to the energy crisis, cover new trading practices such as algorithmic trading and strengthen reporting and monitoring requirements to protect consumers from market abuse.
One of the EU’s appeals is its ability to integrate economic regions in its immediate neighbourhood, where it can reap mutual benefits. This is also true for the candidate countries of the Western Balkans, whose future membership has geopolitical and security policy benefits in addition to economic advantages.
‘2023 in fact demonstrated, if demonstration were needed, that a deep social, political, and ideological cleavage now divides electorates across Europe, separating progressive, educated, urban, middle class and younger voters from the alienated rural, working class and older conservative voters living outside the fashionable urban centres. This cleavage was dramatically evident in election results in Spain, Slovakia, Poland, and Holland in the course of 2023.’
In essence, Europe needs Poland and Hungary, Polish MEP Ryszard Czarnecki argues. An interview about double standards, rule of law concerns about the Tusk administration, and the key role of conservative journalists and experts in the conservative European realignment.
According to recently released data, the Hungarian economy has surpassed the EU average in 2023, and is poised to be among the leading countries in 2024 as well.
Hungary and Czechia have been the only members of the EU that have consistently declared support for the Israeli government, both before and since the 7 October massacres. Last December, they were among the ten nations that voted against a resolution at the UN General Assembly calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
According to Italian press reports, on the margins of the latest EU summit Viktor Orbán indicated that Fidesz is ready to join the ECR after the elections. The move would significantly swell the ranks of the ECR, considering that Fidesz is projected to win 14 seats (of Hungary’s 21), sending quite a sizable delegation to the European Parliament.
For Hungary, this is an unmitigated disaster. While Robert Fico’s return to power in Slovakia offers some reason for optimism, Hungary’s northern neighbours certainly will not replace the Poles as steadfast, influential allies in Europe.
‘It is clear that the unhindered influx of masses of illegal arrivals, aided by criminals, and then the processing of asylum applications within the EU is a failure of failures,’ György Bakondi expressed on public M1 television.