EU to Release of EUR 16.4 Billion to Hungary

"We have agreed with the President of the European Commission on the release of EUR 16.4 billion, approximately HUF 6,000 billion, in EU funds," Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced in Brussels on Friday, MTI reports.

At a joint press conference with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Péter Magyar said one of their most important campaign promises was to bring home and unlock the many thousands of billions of forints in EU funding that is due to the Hungarian people, Hungarian companies, Hungarian public services, health care, education, transportation, and the social sector.

He added that of the EUR 16.4 billion, EUR 4.4 billion are cohesion funds, which the Hungarian government can spend on transport development, health-care investments, social investments, environmental investments, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises. Some EUR 2.2 billion will go towards education, development, and research, EUR 1.5 billion will be allocated to the development of the electricity grid, and the government will be able to spend EUR 2 billion on the procurement of new trains, suburban trains, and trams.

Péter Magyar said that an agreement had been reached with the European Commission on all issues that would enable the Hungarian people to access the funds they are entitled to. "On April 12, the people gave the government an unprecedented political mandate, just as they gave it the mandate to bring the funds home and kick-start an economy that has been unable to grow for four years, one that had the highest inflation in Europe, where we are currently struggling every day to keep public services from collapsing," he pointed out.

"The goal was clear from the start; we negotiated very hard and fought for every euro cent," he said.

The real reason why the European Union was not in a position to provide Hungary with the many thousands of billions of forints it is entitled to was corruption, Péter Magyar said, adding the level of corruption had long been at "unimaginable" levels in both the European Union and Hungary.

He added that he had said from the very beginning that if Hungary adopted anti-corruption measures, established the National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, strengthened the powers of the Integrity Authority, and adopted conflict-of-interest rules like other countries, "then these funds would come."