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| Photo Credit: AP. |
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive branch recommended Sunday that the bloc suspend around 7.5 billion euros (dollars) in funding to Hungary over concerns about democratic backsliding and the possible mismanagement of EU money.
The European
Commission, which proposes the bloc’s laws and ensures that they are respected,
said it was acting “to ensure the protection of the EU budget and the financial
interests of the EU against breaches of the principles of the rule of law in
Hungary.”
EU Budget
Commissioner Johannes Hahn said that despite measures Hungary has proposed to
address the deficiencies, the commission is recommending the suspension of
funds “amounting to an estimated amount of 7.5 billion euros.”
The money
would come from “cohesion funds” granted to Hungary. This envelope of money,
one of the biggest slices of the bloc’s budget, helps countries to bring their
economies and infrastructure up to EU standards.
EU countries
pay around 1% of their gross national income into the budget. Hungary is slated
to receive at least 50 billion euros in all from the 2021-27 budget, according
to commission estimates.
Any action
to suspend the funds must be approved by the EU member countries, and this
requires a “qualified majority,” which amounts to 55% of the 27 members
representing at least 65% of the total EU population.
They have
one month to decide whether to freeze Hungary’s funds, but can in exceptional
circumstances extend that period to two months. The commission is recommending
that the member countries take until Nov. 19 to allow Hungary more time to
address the concerns.
The
commission has for nearly a decade accused Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor
Orban of dismantling democratic institutions, taking control of the media and
infringing on minority rights. Orban, who has been in office since 2010, denies
the accusations.
Speaking
after a meeting of EU commissioners in Brussels, which unanimously endorsed the
move, Hahn welcomed Hungary’s offer to fix the problem, saying that its
proposed remedial action goes “in the right direction.”
He said the
measures could address some of the commission’s concerns if they are followed
up, and properly acted upon. But he said that “a risk for the budget at this
stage remains, therefore we cannot conclude that the EU budget is sufficiently
protected.”
The
commission’s fears focus on public procurement — purchases by the state of
goods and services or for the execution of projects using EU funds. Critics say
the awarding of such contracts have allowed Orban’s government to channel large
sums of EU money into the businesses of politically connected insiders.
A senior EU
official pointed to “systematic and systemic irregularities, deficiencies and
weaknesses in public procurement related to very high rates of single bidding.”
Officials estimate that around half of Hungary’s public tenders are granted
after single bidder processes.
The
commission also has “serious concerns regarding the detection, prevention and
correction of conflicts of interest,” as well as about a number of public interest
trusts which manage significant funds, and notably in the area of education.
Hungarian
media has reported that Orban’s nationalist government is set to announce new
legislation as soon as Monday. EU lawmakers expressed concern last week that
this may just be a ploy to gain time.
In a
resolution on Thursday, the lawmakers said that Hungary’s nationalist
government is deliberately trying to undermine the bloc’s democratic values.
They said
that the government in Budapest — which Orban characterizes as an “illiberal
democracy” — has become “a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy.” In part, they
blame EU member countries for this, for turning a blind eye to possible abuses.
The French
Greens parliamentarian who chaperoned the resolution through the assembly,
Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, said that “for the first time, an EU institution is
stating the sad truth, that Hungary is no longer a democracy.”
The case,
launched by the commission against Hungary in April, is a fresh step in the use
of a new mechanism allowing the EU to take action to protect its budget. It
does not target member countries for general breaches of EU law.
The
mechanism is seen as the EU’s most potent weapon to prevent a worsening
anti-democratic drift in some countries. Commission officials have said that
Hungary has consistently failed to implement EU recommendations for more than
10 years.