Hungary should not receive cohesion funds and recovery subsidies until they are used for corruption and violations of the rule of law, MEPs said, Nepszava reported, citing Rador.

The draft resolution, proposed by five political groups in the European Parliament, asks decision-makers in the European Union not to approve subsidies to Hungary, withheld for various reasons, until it is proven that the measures taken to fight corruption, are effective and irreversible, that is, until the government in Budapest implements all Brussels recommendations aimed at promoting the principles of the rule of law.

The proposal for a resolution, which is almost completed and which concerns the stage of negotiations between Brussels and Budapest, will be voted on Thursday by MEPs. The institutions of the European Union, which make decisions about money, do not necessarily have to take into account the opinion of the European Parliament.

The text of the draft resolution, which was discussed by popular, socialist, liberal, environmental and far-left political groups in the European Parliament, states: even the full implementation of 17 anti-corruption measures agreed between the European Commission and the Hungarian government is not enough to eliminate systemic risks in Hungary for financial interests of the European Union.

For this reason, the European Commission, which is evaluating Orbán’s government, should uphold its September proposal to suspend financial commitments affecting around one-third – 7.5 billion euros – of the union’s funds. According to the European Commission’s recommendation, EU member states should vote to block the money until it is proven that the reasons for the sanctions have disappeared.

Recommendations of Brussels

A similar position is taken by the Committee of EU Representatives regarding financial resources from the recovery fund, respectively, with respect to approximately 5.8 billion euros (2,300 billion forints). The draft resolution regrets, on the one hand, that due to the position of the Government, this support has not yet reached the population of Hungary and the regions, while the other 26 recovery plans have been approved.

On the other hand, he asks the European Commission not to submit this project for approval to the governments of the member states until Hungary fulfills all the recommendations of Brussels in the field of the rule of law and fulfills all the decisions made in this regard by the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights.

(Brussels recommendations relate to improving the activities of prosecutors, strengthening the independence of the judiciary and improving the quality and transparency of the decision-making process).

In addition, MEPs expect the College of Commissioners to sign an agreement with the Hungarian government on the roughly €21 billion of cohesion funds allocated to Hungary for the period 2021-2027, only if it can rule out that these funds could contribute to abuse or violation of law.

If Hungary does not fulfill the conditions, the European Commission should find a way to distribute EU funds through local state administrations and non-governmental organizations and provide support to the final beneficiaries, the draft resolution says.

The European Parliament also asks the European Commission to “immediately take measures against other violations of the rule of law, especially regarding the independence of the judicial system.

In this case, the European Parliament refers to a letter from November, in which the Brussels executive expressed its dissatisfaction with the fact that the coordination of the courts is concentrated in the hands of the president of the National Office for the Judiciary, the fact that questions referred by judges to the Court of Justice of the EU can be recognized illegal, as well as the fact that administrative bodies can appeal to the Constitutional Court a court decision that has already entered into force.

On Monday, the plenary session of the Committee of EU Representatives will discuss the subsidies allocated to Hungary, the decision on which will be taken by the Council of the EU in the coming weeks.

Judgment time is coming

A deadline set by Orbán’s government to implement 17 anti-corruption measures expired at midnight on Saturday.

Thanks to these measures, the executive promised, among other things, to create an integrity body to oversee the transparency of the procedure for concluding public procurement contracts, to include public interest principles in public procurement procedures, to introduce a new asset declaration system, to ensure judicial review of prosecutorial decisions and to strengthen cooperation with the European Office for the fight against fraud (OLAF).

The Hungarian government has kept the European Commission informed of changes and legislative measures, which will publish its assessment next Wednesday, Nepsava said, as quoted by Rador.