No, Hungary did not lose 70 percent of its EU funds. Not even 20 percent.
The soap opera surrounding Hungary's EU funds has been going on for a year and a half. A year and a half is too much time for such a procedure, and lengthy procedures have a big disadvantage,
that those who really like it will be given a lot of time to lie.
I don't even understand why we are so relishing the current lies of the Russian public media or any Ukrainian daily newspaper, when the disinformation machine set up against Hungary on the Belpest-Brussels axis would in itself give work to a ten-person fact-checking rapid force.
They also brought together the fake news dog comedy in July, when the European Commission assessed the economic growth of the countries participating in the EU post-Covid recovery program and adjusted their recovery framework accordingly. Hungary, because we grew at a record high, happened to have its budget adjusted downwards by 560 billion forints - this is what the colleagues sold for half a thousand billion "failed because of the Orbáns".
It would have been nice not to grow and get more money, right?
And now they are attacking again because there is news again. More precisely, there isn't, because it's not news editors in our profession who warm things up about things from two months ago that have nothing to do with the present, but the people of Facebook conteo groups. But some people really think that if they kick the public's door with a letter dated July 20 on September 10, when all the water of the Danube has already drained twice and been replaced again, and then draw good conclusions from it, it will bring them political benefits. Well, it doesn't work.
What is it about? In the framework of the rule of law conditionality procedure initiated against Hungary shortly after the election, the European Commission and the Hungarian government exchange all kinds of official letters, in which the Commission raises problems, the government proposes solutions or promises corrections, and the Commission evaluates the answers by mail. The evaluation takes place in such a way that the competent commissioners make recommendations.
Now one such proposal has been leaked by Benedek Jávor, a former representative of the EP for dialogue, head of Budapest's representation in Brussels.
in which Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn discussed his concerns about Hungary,
and proposed a rather harsh financial sanction. Jávor also added a richly seasoned commentary: "there is a bigger problem than we thought", because "the criticisms are much wider than it is known, and they are not remedied by the government proposals made public in recent days on the establishment of an independent anti-corruption authority or an anti-corruption working group about its creation", "we have stolen everything so far, but we ask ourselves to assume that we will continue to steal. Real Fidesz pace", as well as "now Orbán is really playing all or nothing. The problem is that the country is lying on the table as a stake".
Csaba Káncz, the geopolitical specialist writer of Privátbankár, also drew far-reaching conclusions , I quote:
"The leader of the mafia state would therefore be sentenced to at least three life sentences. Let's agree on a quota of 150 years, and in return the traveling public will receive the allowance."
And from what did they draw these rock-hard conclusions? So that you don't have to read the commissioner's proposal, I will briefly describe the more exciting details: Hahn has continuously identified "systemic irregularities, deficiencies and weaknesses" in the public procurement system since 2007, too many one-step public procurements, potential violations related to the sale of state land, public service public foundations, the performance of the prosecutor's office and found concerns about its judicial control and suggested that the committee take 70 percent of the resources of three large operational programs, environmental protection and energy efficiency (KEHOP+), transport development (IKOP+), and territorial and settlement development (TOP+) for the next seven-year period budget cycle or, if you have not yet approved them, suspend them altogether. With this, roughly a fifth of all Hungarian EU funds would have been lost there. Would be.
However, this commissioner's proposal evaluated the government's solutions contained in the previous rule of law letter from early summer
- then there was no mention of an anti-corruption authority, János Lázár's statement on the complete transformation of the state public procurement and investment regime was not heard, and most importantly: we were still before the latest rule of law letter, which arrived at the European Commission on August 22, by the deadline, and it was not until September It will be evaluated until the 22nd.
In other words: Hahn's devastating findings and his proposal about a 70 percent loss of resources have long since lost their relevance, they are less relevant than yesterday's People's Speech. After all, the Hungarian government wrote its latest letter at the end of August in response to precisely those concerns that Hahn expressed, in order to avoid the very sanctions that Hahn proposed in that letter. I quote the Commissioner: "The Commission must inform Hungary that neither in its letter of June 30 nor July 5, 2022 did it submit adequate corrective measures. At the same time, it should also make it clear that Hungary can still submit adequate corrective measures at the appropriate time so that they can be evaluated by the Commission. The Commission must also indicate that it is ready to negotiate the adequacy of any measure that Hungary plans to consider."
It was precisely these corrective measures that were submitted with the August letter,
and that is why we can be absolutely sure that the end of the rule of law procedure will not be the 70 percent withdrawal of resources proposed by Commissioner Hahn. Anyone who claims something like this based on a previous negotiation phase is lying, or at least trying to turn last year's snow into an ice cube that is relevant in the present.
So why all the hair heat? Well, because
there are those who don't want Hungary to finally get the money it deserves with a nice autumn EU agreement.
Their work of half a decade would go to waste, and the reality that erupted from the meeting room would cost them many years of croaking, digging, lobbying and doomsaying.
Because they are afraid that the Hungarian government's letter from August - which neither they nor others know about anyway, precisely because political troublemakers are left out of the sensitive procedural process - is of merit, and that the committee's assessment - which they also know nothing about - is also that's how you'll find it.
So they are mixing two more in the big poison bed of public life, they are still kicking the public mood, the forint, and investor confidence, so that when the big moment of agreement finally comes, and all their mining work goes straight to the bottom, they can walk away from the poison bed with maximum political profit.
It will not work. We are not sending a message to Brussels, but to them:
we can read, especially the date.
And we don't look at last year's snow as today's news.
Perhaps Hungary's enemies do not govern precisely because they would see it as such.
Featured image: ipu.org
