Hungarian PM Changes Mind and Requests EU Credit Line

Although he refused to do so last year, Viktor Orbán has now sent a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen asking for more money for Hungary from the EU's EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). In addition to the non-repayable aid, the government would also draw on the loan facility - the conditions of which are more favorable than those on the market - that was rejected last summer.

Hungary's original allocation for the recovery fund was HUF 5,800 billion, of which 43% would have been aid and 57% concessional loans. But so far, the Hungarian government has not even received permission from the European Commission to draw the funds, as the Commission has not approved the recovery plan submitted by the government because it lacks reform plans to fight corruption more effectively.

According to press reports, the government is now says it is ready to implement the EC's proposals in the country-specific recommendations, including the offer to set up a new body on corruption, to be created on the Estonian model, which would report annually to the Prosecutor General, who would inform MPs at his annual parliamentary hearing.

"In a letter, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán informed Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, of the Hungarian government's decision to request the European Commission to draw down the credit line provided under the European Instrument for Recovery and Reconstruction," Bertalan Havasi, head of the Prime Minister's Press Office, told the state news agency MTI.

According to Havasi, the economic impact of the war and the sanctions are a heavy burden on the Hungarian economy, as war is raging on Hungary's borders, with nearly half a million Ukrainian refugees arriving in Hungary in the past few weeks alone. "The extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary measures," MTI quotes Viktor Orbán's letter to Von der Leyen as saying.