Hungary has taken “significant steps” to have its National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) unblocked by the European Commission, accepting its requests for judicial independence, a European official told Reuters on Friday, while according to Politico.eu, European officials blamed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Oban is being blackmailed because of his opposition to European financial aid intended for Ukraine.

“Hungarians have accepted the Commission’s conditions regarding the principles of the independence of the judicial system. The talks are not over yet, but this is a significant step,” said a European official quoted by Reuters on condition of anonymity.

“I cannot confirm that we have completed all negotiations regarding the refund, but they are being finalized. The most sensitive moments were mostly around the independence of the judicial system,” explained the same official.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s chief of staff said on Wednesday that the Budapest government will make some changes to the judicial system in order to fulfill Brussels’ conditions for unblocking the sums allocated to Hungary in the European recovery plan after the pandemic (European Recovery and Resilience Mechanism), which includes grants for 5.8 billion euros for this country.

Poland and Hungary, countries led by conservative governments that Brussels accuses of violating the rule of law by limiting the rights of the LGBT community, judicial reforms or challenging the primacy of European law and ECJ rulings over national law, are the only EU member states that for these reasons still cannot use this plan.

While Poland’s NRDP has been finally approved by the European Commission, albeit without the allocation of funds, Hungary’s is still blocked by Brussels, which has also activated against Budapest a new conditionality mechanism that allows the European Commission to suspend European funds to those Member States that they believe that they violate the rule of law.

Meanwhile, European officials have accused Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of blackmail after his government announced it would oppose a European Commission proposal for 18 billion euros in European financial aid to Ukraine, money needed by the country’s budget as a war fueled by Russian aggression continues. . .

One criticism came from German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock, who said Budapest should not “play poker” in trying to pressure Brussels in a separate dispute over funds the Commission is blocking for Hungary on rule of law grounds.

Hungarian Finance Minister Mihai Varga, however, said that Budapest’s opposition to the aid offered by the European Commission for Ukraine is not related to the dispute between Budapest and Brussels on the rule of law.

“Hungary is ready to support Ukraine, but we do not want to participate in any new joint EU loan,” the Hungarian minister said.

The European Commission’s proposal provides for assistance to Ukraine in the amount of 18 billion euros in 2023 in the form of loans, the interest on which will be covered by EU member states (Source: Agerpres).