Hungarian Conservative

Tamás Deutsch, leading candidate of Fidesz–KDNP in the European Parliament elections, discussed various important topics in his interview with Mandiner, including the recently adopted new migration pact, the composition of the EP after the upcoming elections, and the frozen EU funds due to Hungary.

According to POLITICO, Slovakia may soon find itself undergoing a rule of law procedure, possibly leading to the European Commission deciding to freeze EU funds due to the Central European state. The contrasting paths of Robert Fico and Donald Tusk serve as a clear illustration of Brussels’ ideological warfare on member states that refuse to surrender their national sovereignty.

The pontiff mentions his experience with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary and the EU bureaucrats in his new autobiography titled Life: My Story Through History, opining that Brussels should ‘respect Hungary’s uniqueness’.

Additional previously frozen EU funding is set to reach Hungary, this time totalling more than €70 million. However, more than €20 billion funds are still withheld by Brussels.

This comes in addition to the €10.2 billion of COVID recovery and EU cohesion funds released in December 2023.

Ursula von der Leyen has announced her intention to be the candidate of the European People’s Party for a new term leading the European Commission. However, the EPP leadership intends to change the policy Von der Leyen has pursued for the past five years.

Both Minister of EU Affairs János Bóka and MP and former Minister of Justice Judit Varga have strongly asserted that Hungary will not give in to the EU’s ‘blackmail,’ and will not approve additional funding to Ukraine through a common loan under the threat of additional EU funds being withheld.

Ursula von der Leyen’s recent remarks have confirmed it that the freezing of EU funds to Hungary was never primarily motivated by concerns about the rule of law. The withholding of the funds has rather been used as a tool to impose a leftist agenda on Hungary, including gender ideology and migration.

Emphasizing the need to resist ‘blackmail’, the resolution, approved by the vast majority of the MEPs, condemns the alleged ‘systematic efforts of the Hungarian government to undermine the EU’s founding values’. The resolution also highlights Hungary’s perceived violations of EU treaties, calling on the European Council to assess whether the country has committed ‘serious and persistent breaches of EU values.’

Leftist MEPs added a last-minute amendment to a resolution up for a vote on the European Parliament floor tomorrow in which they declare their intent to sue the European Commission for approving the release of €10.2 billion of the withheld cohesion funds to Hungary.

Under the scope of the Union’s REPowerEU programme, €779.5 billion have been transferred to Budapest and the amount is now included in the government budget, Finance Minister Mihály Varga announced today. According to Minister for Regional Development Tibor Navracsics, an additional €445 million will also arrive from Brussels soon.

While talking to the Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet, Ákos Bence Gát of the Danube Institute criticized the hectic and unreliable way the withholding and release of funds is ruled on by the EU. He also talked about Ukraine’s potential accession to the Union, which is the main agenda point of the ongoing EU Council meeting.

The payment would come as part of the Union’s RepowerEU plan, aimed to help Member States transition to green energy, thus would not come from the €36 billion of COVID recovery and cohesion funds suspended over supposed rule of law concerns.

While attending a meeting of European Union justice ministers, Minister Bence Tuzson spoke to journalists about a number of important issues, including the recent increase in the terror threat in Europe, the frozen EU funds due to Hungary, and the country’s upcoming Council of the EU presidency.

Tibor Navracsics claims the Hungarian government has fulfilled all the criteria set by the EU Commission to access the funds, and could be receiving actual money transfers from Brussels as early as November.

Viktor Orbán has firmly stated that Hungary will not approve any EU budget increase until its access to the withheld funds is reinstated. The EC may now be willing to release the frozen funding to gain Budapest’s support for an increase in the EU budget to secure more financial aid to Ukraine.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs stated at a press conference on Tuesday that Hungary will keep its promise of not holding up Sweden’s joining of NATO, thus it is ready to back it once Turkey is. However, a recent incident of Quran burning in Stockholm may set the process back for some time again.

Tamás Deutsch, during a public radio interview, drew attention to the concerning fact that the EU has been sending billions of Euros in military aid to Ukraine despite its current budget having been approved in December 2020, over a year before the Russian invasion began. He also pointed out that the exact amount spent on aiding the Ukrainian war effort is not even known.

‘Although the outcome is yet unknown, I think that any kind of ascent should start with the (re)construction of the infrastructure to connect the partners. After the completion of this task, we should think about declaring, promoting and following the basic values and principles shared by the Central European countries and nations. These principles will allow us to find a common language, free from the ‘progressive’ ideologies that characterise the West now.’

At his recent hearing in the EP, the Budget Commissioner stated that it is not true that the Commission is hindering negotiations with the Hungarian government over the rule of law concerns. The Commission is interested in finding a solution, but it must be a solution that serves the interests of Hungarian citizens, Hahn said.

The fate of a sum of 13.2 billion EUR is at stake in the political and legal debate between the European Commission and the government of Hungary. Parts of the regular EU cohesion and post-COVID recovery funds are being withheld, as the Commission has issues with the state of the rule of law in Hungary. The new law, to enter into force on 1 July, aims to resolve the deadlock.