By Gabriela Baczynska
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission needs to see more action through Hungary to safeguard corruption before Brussels agrees to release EU funds, European resources said.
A source called Budapest’s efforts to secure the budget a “charm offensive” but said there had been “no immediate progress” in talks on the factor last week between EU officials and Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga.
The European Commission has refused to allow Hungary to resort to the budget of economies emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, accusing the nationalist government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban of undermining the rule of law.
Ahead of the Varga talks in Brussels last Wednesday and Thursday, Hungary announced it would create an anti-corruption authority and a race involving non-governmental organizations to oversee the spending of European Union funds.
The European Commission said after the meetings that it would make the Budapest proposals.
Varga told EU officials last week that Budapest’s promise to create a new anti-corruption company would be enough for Brussels to release some 6 billion euros ($6. 08 billion) in the COVID stimulus budget and the chorus of recovering even more of the cash destined for Hungary. the bloc’s shared budget 2021-2027, according to EU sources.
But the sources, with Varga’s discussions, were cautious.
“Let’s make a charm offensive,” an EU official said. “But satan is in the details. “
One moment, an EU official said that Hungary’s proposals were a step in the right direction, but that implementation was essential.
Orban has come under increased pressure to reach an agreement with the Commission, as the weakening of the guilder has exacerbated Hungary’s economic problems in recent weeks.
But after years of increasingly bitter disputes between the EU and Budapest over democratic norms, corruption, migration and LGBTQ rights, a third EU official said: “There is little that is accepted as true in Hungary. “
Hungary recorded irregularities in only about 4% of its EU budget spending in 2015-2019, according to OLAF, the bloc’s anti-fraud body, among the 27 EU countries.
EU lawmakers will most likely ask the Commission to allow Hungary to get its way when they debate the state of democracy and basic rights in the former communist country on Wednesday.
The Commission then has until 21 September to assess whether Budapest’s most recent proposals are sufficient to allay its concerns.
Otherwise, Brussels will propose that other EU countries punish Budapest as a component of the bloc’s “Money for Democracy” program that affects the bloc’s entire joint investment of 1. 8 trillion euros in 2021-27.
According to a July Commission document, EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn proposed that around 70% of the EU’s planned investment in Hungary be threatened.
($1 = 0. 9872 euros)
(Additional feature through Jan Strupczewski, written through Gabriela Baczynska, editing through Susan Fenton)
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