The agreement with the European Union on the Recovery and Resilience Fund (RRF) will not depend on the Hungarian government, the Minister of Regional Development announced on Friday. Tibor Navracsics said that the Hungarian government is preparing for an agreement, it will do everything for this, and it will not depend on it if the agreement is not reached.
The minister indicated that they are open to all suggestions, and did not consider it impossible that there would be legislative amendments as appropriate. He also said that they had not come across a request from the European Commission (EC) for Hungary to join the European Union prosecutor's office. The minister did not consider this suggestion to be rejected a priori, they are open to this question as well.
Tibor Navracsics made the agreement dependent on the will of the committee. He noted that the system of expectations changes in many cases during negotiations with the committee. The minister estimated the probability of an agreement at 98.8 percent. He also mentioned that it is expected that a decision will have to be made this year as to whether Hungary will use its part of the RFF loan.
Tibor Navracsics argued in favor of borrowing from policy points of view, because according to him the Hungarian recovery plan is good, it makes Hungary more competitive. The conditions for borrowing are also better than the market conditions, he pointed out. He also said that the Hungarian government must respond to the European Court of Justice's concerns about the rule of law by August 22.
He said that according to the EC's own records, Hungary is nowhere near among the most corrupt EU member states.
If Hungary is expected to take steps in this area, he continued, then Hungary can rightly expect that the Union also expects steps from states in a worse situation.
He stated that the government also wants these phenomena to occur as little as possible, they are also discussing them, and if there is a good solution, they will accept it. He reminded that Hungary undertook to reduce the proportion of single-bid public procurement to 15 percent.
Tibor Navracsics also reported that all operational programs will be submitted to the Union by July 31, and the committee will have five months to evaluate them.
He is confident, he said, that they will be able to sign the partnership agreement in the meantime, which will allow the EU to disburse the money based on the agreed operational programs. He said that their goal is to make Hungary one of the five most livable member states of the EU by 2030.
He said that according to EU Commissioner Elisa Ferreira, who is responsible for operational programs, negotiations with Hungary have accelerated in recent weeks and are progressing at a good pace. The minister said that he is confident that there will be no obstacles to the signing of the partnership agreement and the positive evaluation of the operational programs.
To the question of whether Viktor Orbán's speech in Tusnádfürdő will affect the negotiations, Tibor Navracsics said that he had not yet come across any concrete signs that this would have any consequences. When asked about his personal opinion about the speech, the politician said that it doesn't matter what he thinks, he is here to discuss EU resources and manage regional development.
Source: Magyar Hírlap
Featured image: MTI
