Biggest bribe or standard procedure? EU releases blocked billions for Hungary

Summit meeting - Biggest bribe or standard procedure? EU releases blocked billions for Hungary

Despite ongoing criticism of the rule of law, the European Commission is releasing ten billion euros in frozen EU funds for Hungary. Brussels justified the move by stating that Hungary had fulfilled the necessary requirements. Other budget funds amounting to almost twelve billion euros and billions in coronavirus aid remain blocked.

EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said that Hungary had fulfilled all the agreed requirements with the latest judicial reforms and that there were now sufficient guarantees that the independence of the judiciary in Hungary would be strengthened. However, today's decision was not the end of the process. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and react early if there are any setbacks.

Will Hungary reconsider its blockade?

It is now eagerly awaited whether the release of the funds will have an impact on the blockade threatened by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the upcoming EU summit.

At their summit meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, the heads of state and government of the European Union want to decide on the start of EU accession negotiations with Ukraine. The meeting will also discuss the long-term EU budget for the period 2021 to 2027. However, Hungary has threatened to veto both issues.

Orban argued that the European Commission's proposal for the start of accession negotiations was not compatible with a summit decision from June 2022.

He was alluding to the fact that the Brussels authority is recommending the start regardless of reform requirements that have not yet been fully met. However, the summit decision states that further steps in the accession process should only be decided once "all these conditions have been fully met". This applies regardless of the fact that the start of EU accession negotiations would primarily be a symbolic step, as the talks are likely to take many years and Ukraine's accession before the end of the Russian war of aggression is considered impossible. He described the Commission's proposal on the draft budget as insubstantial, unbalanced and unrealistic.

"Biggest bribe in the history of the EU"

In the end, it remained unclear whether Orban only wanted to increase pressure in order to obtain the frozen subsidies for his country. Some EU diplomats believe this is conceivable, while others point out that Orban recently claimed that he would not back down on the issue of Ukraine even after the release of funds.

The European Parliament sharply criticized the EU Commission's decision. Green MEP Daniel Freund said: "Ursula von der Leyen is now paying the biggest bribe in the history of the EU - ten billion euros - to the autocrat and Putin friend Viktor Orban." The leaders of the Christian Democrat, Social Democrat and Liberal groups in the European Parliament also accused the authority of unjustly releasing the funds.

The EU Commission, on the other hand, said on Wednesday: If you do not want to make yourself vulnerable, you should not continue to withhold the ten billion euros after the recent Hungarian reforms. However, it is annoying that the decision now has to be made directly before the EU summit this Thursday and Friday and that the impression is now being created that there could be a connection with blockade threats by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The EU had blocked the funds amounting to around 22 billion euros due to concerns that too little was being done to combat corruption and uphold the rule of law under Prime Minister Orban. The EU Commission has been accusing Hungary of undermining EU standards and fundamental values for years. The authority has launched a number of infringement proceedings and taken Hungary to the European Court of Justice several times.