{"id":285177,"date":"2023-12-13T18:30:07","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T17:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2023\/12\/13\/fondi-ungheria-scongelati-commissione-ue\/"},"modified":"2023-12-18T15:58:52","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T14:58:52","slug":"eu-commission-unfreezes-nearly-a-third-of-funds-blocked-to-hungary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/2023\/12\/13\/eu-commission-unfreezes-nearly-a-third-of-funds-blocked-to-hungary\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Commission unfreezes nearly a third of funds blocked to Hungary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013\u00a0Just as Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong> landed in Brussels to participate in the three-day EU-Western Balkans summit and the highly sensitive European Council (held in stalemate by the Hungarian premier himself<\/a>), the green light from the EU Commission has arrived. Hungary’s judicial reforms have been positively assessed, allowing the release of 10.2 billion euros<\/strong> in cohesion policy, maritime and fisheries, and home affairs funds. “We have received sufficient assurances that the independence of the judiciary will be strengthened in Hungary; however, today’s decision is not the end of the process,” disclosed Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Orban<\/a>
From left: the prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orb\u00e1n, and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The decision had been expected for weeks<\/a>, partly due to a question of technical timing related to another dossier, which instead received a negative opinion (and again without surprises): the \u20ac6.3 billion blocked by the rule of law conditionality mechanism<\/strong>. “After an in-depth assessment and several exchanges with the Hungarian government, the commission considers that Hungary has taken the steps it committed to take” regarding the\u00a0horizontal enabling conditions,<\/strong>” \u2013\u00a0that is, the links between disbursement of funds and violation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights \u2013\u00a0is what is stated in the note<\/a>
\nof the Berlaymont arrived late this afternoon (Dec. 13). The issue was that of judicial independence<\/strong>, which would be resolved by four measures adopted by Budapest<\/strong>: increased powers of the independent National Judicial Council “to limit undue influence and discretionary decisions and to ensure more objective and transparent administration of the courts”, reform of the functioning of the Supreme Court “to limit the risks of political influence”, elimination of the Constitutional Court’s role in reviewing final decisions of judges at the request of public authorities, and the Supreme Court’s ability to review issues that judges wish to refer to the EU Court of Justice.<\/p>\n

In practical terms, this means that “a portion of the cohesion policy funding will no longer be blocked<\/strong>,” and Hungary will be able to start claiming repayments “up to about 10.2 billion euros.” The commission promises to monitor through “audits, active engagement with stakeholders and monitoring committees” the implementation of Hungary’s measures, and “at any time” funding<\/strong> can be blocked again<\/strong> if horizontal enabling conditions are violated. Three other areas covered by the horizontal enabling conditions, however, remain frozen, for which judicial independence was not the only obstacle: “Concerns relate to the\u00a0so-called Hungarian Child Protection Act, serious risks to academic freedom, and the right to asylum<\/strong>,” the Commission points out.<\/p>\n

\"orban<\/a><\/figure>\n

From left: European Council President Charles Michel and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n in Budapest (Nov. 27, 2023)<\/em><\/p>\n

As the von der Leyen cabinet always specifies (although it should still be noted a lack of transparency on the specific funds blocked or unfrozen),\u00a0the funding now stalled for Hungary “amounts to about 21 billion euros.”\u00a0<\/strong>And here two other issues must be considered: the rule of law conditionality mechanism and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan<\/strong>. On the first stumbling block, “the commission considers that the country has not addressed the violations of the rule of law principles that led to the adoption of the measures,”
\ndecided by the council<\/a> in December 2022 and for this reason, the von der Leyen cabinet “is not in a position to propose the adjustment or lifting of the measures against Hungary.” The second issue concerns Hungary’s Pnrr 5.8 billion constrained by 27 super-objectives<\/a>: “As the super-objectives have not been fully complied with, no payment request can be disbursed for the time being,” the EU executive reports, pointing out that 4 out of 27 relate to judicial independence and 21 out of 27 correspond to corrective measures of the conditionality mechanism. The total amount of the Hungarian Pnrr has risen to 10.4 billion<\/strong> with the clearance of the RePowerEu chapter<\/a>
\nof \u20ac4.6 billion, with its \u20ac900 million automatic and unrestricted pre-financing).<\/p>\n

EU frozen funds to Hungary<\/h3>\n

According to the
\nmore accurate data provided last May<\/a> by the commission services themselves, the EU funds for Hungary frozen by Brussels stood at 28.6 billion euros, divided into three macro-areas: National Recovery and Resilience Plan <\/strong>(5.8 billion), Cohesion Policy Funds <\/strong>(22.6 billion) and Home Affairs Funds <\/strong>(223 million). The three paths proceed in parallel, each with a specific procedure (or several, depending on the nature of the funding). The first considers the “27 super-objectives” on the rule of law<\/a>
\nset on November 30 last year by the Commission to release Hungary’s NDP funds i.e.,\u00a05.8 billion in grants<\/strong>. What is expected from Budapest is that judicial independence will be strengthened, so that judges’ decisions will be “protected from outside political interference.”<\/p>\n

\"EU<\/a>The second chapter \u2013\u00a0definitely the most complex \u2013\u00a0is the one concerning the cohesion policy funds<\/a>, which for Hungary are worth a total of 22.6 billion euros <\/strong>as funding from the EU budget. Of these funds,\u00a06.3 billion were frozen through the rule of law conditionality mechanism\u00a0<\/strong>by the council decision<\/a>
\nin December 2022 (and which remain frozen). This is a separate procedure involving 55 percent of the funds allocated to Hungary from three operational programs financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Cohesion Fund, the Just Transition Fund (JTF), and the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+): “Environment and Energy Efficiency Plus”, “Integrated Transport Plus”, and “Spatial and Settlement Development Plus”.<\/p>\n

Of the remaining 16.3 billion, 12.9 billion were tied only to the implementation of judicial reforms <\/strong>(without additional criteria) and these are the ones that were partly unblocked by Brussels after the review request. The remaining 3.4 billion are blocked for non-compliance with horizontal enabling conditions <\/strong>\u2013\u00a0<\/strong>that is, the necessary conditions as far as the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is concerned\u00a0\u2013\u00a0in three disputes <\/strong>between the Commission and Hungary: the “child protection” law (the
\nanti-Lgbtq+ law<\/a>), the one on academic independence,<\/a> and the one on treatment of asylum seekers<\/a>. The first issue is responsible for stalling 3 percent of the cohesion policy budget (i.e., 678 million), the second by 9 percent (over 2 billion), and the third by an additional 3 percent (another 678 million). To unlock these funds it is not enough to put an end to the issues related to the independence of the judiciary <\/strong>(although it remains a pre-requisite for all of these) since the pending issues regarding the other horizontal enabling conditions must also be resolved.<\/p>\n

\"Viktor<\/a><\/figure>\n

The Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/p>\n

Finally, there is the last issue to consider, that of the 223.1 million euros from three Home Affairs Funds<\/strong> programs. As learned<\/a> by Eunews<\/em> in February from sources inside the EU executive \u2013 and then confirmed again in mid-November \u2013it is 69.8 million from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), 102.8 from the Border Management and Visa Instrument (BMVI), and 50.5 from the Internal Security Fund (ISF). However, given the commission’s lack of transparency, it is difficult at the moment to understand what exactly of these funds has been released<\/strong>. However, according to what can be read in the implementation decisions, only the IISF and BMVI funds are exclusively related to justice issues, while the AMIF funds are also related to asylum, non-refoulement, and returns: this would result in a release of 153.3 million out of 223.1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is explained that the justice reforms adopted by Budapest meet the horizontal enabling conditions to unlock 10.2 billion of the Cohesion Policy, Home Affairs and Fisheries funds. The decision came on the eve of a crucial European Council at the mercy of Viktor Orb\u00e1n’s obstructionism<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5647,"featured_media":262171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705,25681],"tags":[25833,25835,25871,25840,26023,25747],"class_list":["post-285177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-politics","tag-viktor-orban-en","tag-news-commissione-europea-en","tag-hungarys-funds","tag-orban-en","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5647"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285177"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285997,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285177\/revisions\/285997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}