By Jan Strupczewski
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Hungary is aiming to reach a deal with the European Commission to unblock billions of euros in EU funds by the end of August, Hungarian State Secretary for EU Affairs Janos Boka said on Tuesday.
The executive Commission has been withholding its approval for disbursements to Budapest of 5.8 billion euros in grants from the EU’s special recovery fund over long-standing concerns over the rule of law.
The Commission says that apart from media pluralism and court independence, Hungary also has a problem with corruption and there is a risk that even regular EU funds from the bloc’s 2021-2027 budget sent to the country could be misspent.
The Commission has therefore delayed signing what is called a partnership agreement with Hungary, which details how EU cash under joint EU-Hungarian management in the 2021-2027 budget would be spent, putting another 21 billion euros on hold.
To add pressure, the EU executive used its new powers to investigate risks to the EU budget, the so-called conditionality mechanism, in April, launching steps against Budapest that could formalise the suspension of the EU disbursements.
In June senior Hungarian officials declared they were ready to seek a deal with the Commission and Budapest says talks have made progress since then.
“Negotiations with the Commission have entered into a new phase,” Boka told reporters. “Hungary’s objective is to close all outstanding issues in the budgetary conditionality by the end of August.”
“If we manage to close all outstanding issues on the budgetary conditionality, then we expect a speedy conclusion of the RRP (recovery fund) and MFF (EU budget) negotiations on that basis,” Boka said.
Officials from the European Commission did not respond to a request for comment.
One of the Commission’s concerns was that when spending EU money, the Hungarian government often organises tenders with only one bidder, usually linked to the ruling party.
Boka said the Hungarian government was ready to reduce the number of such single-bidder tenders to 15% of all tenders.
“It is very difficult to reduce single-bid public procurement processes to zero, because there are certain areas where you have only one serious bidder,” Boka said. “We have to identify areas where this reduction is actually feasible.”
He said Hungary was also prepared to meet another of the Commission’s demands that Hungarian courts be allowed to order prosecutors to pursue a case, even if the prosecutor had earlier decided not to.
Budapest was also ready to discuss detailed Commission suggestions on the transparency and inclusiveness of lawmaking in Hungary. “I do not see any area where we cannot come to an agreement. I cannot label anything as contentious,” Boka said.
(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Alison Williams)
