Hungary risks suspending payments of 7.5 billion euros from the European Union budget due to suspicions of corruption, despite concessions made by Budapest in the fight against misuse of EU funds.

The experts of the European Commission studied the measures taken by Hungary in an attempt to prevent the suspension of payments and came to the conclusion that the anti-corruption efforts are not enough to move forward with the transfer of money, reports the German agency DPA, citing. from Agerpres.

The European Commission will now propose to the Council to withdraw 7.5 billion euros, as Brussels has proposed since September.

EC President Ursula von der Leyen and the other 26 European commissioners are due to decide next week whether they will submit the proposal to member states.

The EC proposal must then be approved by a qualified majority of EU countries, which means at least 15 of the 27 member states, which together represent at least 65% of the total EU population.

The European Commission has long criticized widespread corruption in Hungary.

In a July report, Brussels spoke of “an environment in which the risks of nepotism, favoritism and nepotism are not eliminated in high-level public administration”.

7.5 billion euros are not the only EU funds that Hungary risks losing due to suspicions of corruption and violations of the rule of law. Budapest is also at loggerheads with Brussels over payments from the Recovery and Resilience Plan.