Hungary was deprived of a financial allocation of about 1 billion euros from the European Union due to corruption suspicions. This is the first time when official Brussels applies such a sanction to a member country of the bloc. Budapest has not yet commented on the funding restrictions.
The money is part of a larger package worth 19 billion euros. The European Union began to block the allocation of these funds, accusing Hungary of violating public procurement rules, due to a series of reforms implemented by Budapest, some of the funds became available, but the deadline for the last tranche expired on December 31.
In a report published months ago, the European Commission claimed that Hungary did not meet EU democratic standards, particularly on issues of political finance, conflicts of interest and media independence.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that these funds are “theirs”, promising to fight to receive the financial package.
“They regularly try to take money from Hungarians by various means and methods,” Orban announced last month.