Hungary lost its right to significant EU aid due to violations of the rule of law, requiring reforms that were to be carried out by the end of 2025. According to the European Commission, the lost funds amount to over 1 billion euros, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
In order to receive the funds, Hungary had to carry out sufficient reforms by the end of 2025, including changes to laws to prevent conflicts of interest and fight corruption.
The funds intended for programs supporting structurally weak regions and initially planned for 2023 were frozen after a European Commission analysis concluded that Hungary had ignored certain EU standards and fundamental values. If Budapest continues to fail to implement sufficient reforms, it risks losing billions of euros in further funding in the future.
The EU rule of law regulation, which links the bloc's financial interests to the rule of law and gives the EU additional financial and budgetary tools to monitor the rule of law in member states, entered into force in 2021. At the end of 2022, EU member states agreed to freeze around 6.3 billion euros of the funds earmarked for Hungary from the bloc's multiannual budget for 2021-2027 through this mechanism.
The first tranche, also amounting to just over 1 billion euros, has already expired at the end of 2024 because Budapest failed to implement the necessary reforms, DPA recalls.
Other billions of euros for the country are also blocked in part by other provisions. According to the commission, according to the latest figures, a total of around 17 billion euros have been frozen.