BUDAPEST, Jun 20 -for financing Ukraine, while the new draft budget until 2027 proposes to allocate another 50 billion euros to Kiev, while Budapest has not received «a penny» of the funds due to it from EU funds, Hungarian Prime Minister Csaba Demeter said.
Earlier, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the EC reviewed the multi-year EU budget for the period from 2024 to 2027 and invited countries to increase it by 66 billion euros to help Ukraine, implement migration and refugee programs and strengthen the competitiveness of the union. Of these, 50 billion euros in the form of grants and loans are proposed to be provided for the next four years for financial assistance to Kyiv.
«The European Union is asking for money from the member countries. That is, because of the financing of the war and Ukraine, the EU cash desk has become empty, so several tens of billions must be added to the budget … The largest part will go to further financing of Ukraine. It will be 50 billion euros,» — said Demeter in a video message posted on the social network.
He recalled that in order to change the EU budget, a unanimous decision of all member countries is needed. «Therefore, the discussion will be interesting and strange. Because while additional payments are expected from us, we have not yet received a penny from the EU funds due to us. But they also appear in the budget and are spelled out in the contracts. And yet we have not received anything,» emphasized Demeter.
According to him, when the proposal to the member countries to pay additional money to the general budget is put on paper, «it would be good if this controversial question was also answered.»
In mid-September, the European Commission proposed launching a special conditionality mechanism for Hungary in order to protect the EU budget «from violations of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary.» This meant freezing about 7.5 billion euros of EU funding for Budapest. This mechanism, designed to protect the community budget from corruption, was activated for the first time in two years of its existence.
Subsequently, the EC decided to maintain its original proposal to suspend 65% of Hungary's obligations to pay Hungary's funds from certain EU general funds, although Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that Budapest had complied with the entire list of requirements of the European Commission, which related to measures to combat corruption, increase the transparency of public procurement , strengthening the independence of the judiciary.
In December 2022, EU countries agreed to freeze funds for Hungary, but at a lower level than previously proposed. Initially, the European Union proposed to freeze funding for Hungary for 7.5 billion euros. In December, European countries agreed to reduce the size of the frozen funds to 6.3 billion euros in exchange for Budapest waiving its veto on a number of issues, in particular, on a package of aid to Kyiv.
Prime Minister of Hungary said that the European Commission continued to block EU funds for Hungary because it wants to influence Hungary's position on migration, sex education and sanctions, but Budapest does not intend to change its position on these issues, which it considers fundamental. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjarto said that the country needs to be prepared for serious attacks from the EU, since «Brussels and the liberal propaganda machine» are not selective in their means and use all kinds of blackmail against Budapest.