Hungarian reforms not complete yet, MEPs sayMembers of the European parliament said today that Hungary has not fulfilled promised judicial reforms needed to unlock the 13 billion euros slated for regional development in Hungary that is currently frozen.
It doesn’t look perfectly good yet, Finnish MEP Petri Sarvamaa, a member of the centre-right European People’s Party, told reporters in a joint press conference with MEPs from three other political familes.
The main message is for the European Commission to wait to see if it is really fulfilling its promises on judicial reforms, according to Sarvamaa.
The necessary reforms have not been done yet, German Green MEP Daniel Freund said, calling for the European Commission to wait until after the next elections for Hungary’s National Judicial Council before deciding on the fate of Hungary’s money. Freund also highlighted the need to see that Hungary has indeed strengthened the Kúria’s judicial independence.
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We need maximum results before we disburse funds, Dutch MEP Thijs Reuten, a member of the Socialists and Democrats group, told reporters.
There are too many shortcomings at the moment to grant Hungary funding, he added.
Hungary’s government is not a good faith actor and guarantees need to be ironclad before EU funds are unfrozen, Hungarian MEP Katalin Cseh, a member of the opposition Momentum party, told reporters today.
Full implementation of the reforms the European Commission requested from Hungary’s government is a basic minimum, she said, underscoring like her colleagues from other leading European political families that in her view the Hungarian government has yet to fully comply with promised measures to strengthen the independence of the judiciary.
Hungarian reforms not complete yet, MEPs sayMembers of the European parliament said today that Hungary has not fulfilled promised judicial reforms needed to unlock the 13 billion euros slated for regional development in Hungary that is currently frozen.
It doesn’t look perfectly good yet, Finnish MEP Petri Sarvamaa, a member of the centre-right European People’s Party, told reporters in a joint press conference with MEPs from three other political familes.
The main message is for the European Commission to wait to see if it is really fulfilling its promises on judicial reforms, according to Sarvamaa.
The necessary reforms have not been done yet, German Green MEP Daniel Freund said, calling for the European Commission to wait until after the next elections for Hungary’s National Judicial Council before deciding on the fate of Hungary’s money. Freund also highlighted the need to see that Hungary has indeed strengthened the Kúria’s judicial independence.
Oleksiy Goncharenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, has weighed in on the 1956 anniversary and recent controversial meeting between Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
“The Hungarian prime minister is betraying the memory of the students who were not afraid to speak out against the regime 67 years ago,” he said.
Today is a national holiday in Hungary. On this day in 1956, the anti-communist revolution began, which was suppressed by Soviet troops. At that time, the Hungarian students who started the uprising understood that the Soviet government was evil.
But history does not teach… pic.twitter.com/ybN9s8qDbb
— Oleksiy Goncharenko (@GoncharenkoUa) October 23, 2023 ‘We are pretty close’, senior Hungarian official says as Budapest pushes to unfreeze EU fundsThe EU and Hungary are close to an agreement that would unfreeze billions in EU funds, according to the Hungarian side.
Nearly 28 billion euros in EU funds originally slated for Hungary are currently frozen, under three different instruments. To unlock the funds, Brussels has given Budapest a long list of reforms to complete, from strengthening the judiciary to putting in place stronger anti-corruption and transparency measures.
A senior Hungarian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, told the Guardian today that “we are pretty close to the end.”
While there are still some pending issues, the official said, the negotiations are close to an end.
European parliament members representing the centre-right European People’s Party, Socialists and Democrats group, centrist Renew Europe group and the Greens will speak today in Brussels about whether they believe Hungary has done enough for the EU to unfreeze billions in funding currently suspended over rule-of-law concerns.
They will be focusing on a 13 billion euro pot of money earmarked for regional development and frozen until Budapest can show it has implemented reforms safeguarding judicial independence.
Stay tuned.
Opposition pours red paint outside Orbán’s officeMembers of Momentum, a centrist opposition party, threw red paint this morning outside Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s office as a protest against his relationship with the Kremlin.
Orbán “betrayed” the memory of the heroes of 1956, Momentum wrote.
Members of the Momentum opposition party throw paint outside Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s office in Budapest, Hungary Photograph: Momentum, FacebookRed paint outside Hungarian government offices Photograph: Momentum, FacebookOrbán a ‘disgrace to memory of Hungarian freedom fighters’, opposition politician saysDaniel Berg, the vice president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and deputy mayor of Budapest’s second district, has criticised the Hungarian government’s foreign policy.
“The spirit of ’56 is sadly more alive today in Kyiv than in Budapest,” he told the Guardian this morning.
“Viktor Orbán kowtowing to dictators like Putin and Xi Jinping, undermining Ukraine and Nato, and drifting ever farther from the west is a disgrace to the memory of Hungarian freedom fighters, and counter to all they fought, bled and died for.”
Here are photos from 1956. Today Hungary is marking the anniversary of its uprising, which was crushed by Soviet troops.
Hungarian rebels wave their red, white and green national flag from a tank captured in the main square of Budapest, Hungary, in this 1956 file photo. The uprising began on 23 October 1956 with demonstrations against the Stalinist regime in Budapest and was crushed eleven days later by Soviet tanks amid bitter fighting. Some 2,500 people were killed and a further 200,000 forced into exile. Photograph: APPeople gather around a fallen statue of Soviet leader Josef Stalin in front of the National Theater in Budapest, Hungary, on 24 October 1956. Photograph: Arpad Hazafi/APA 1956 photo released by the UN High Commission for Refugees in 2006 shows an Austrian volunteer, left, helping a Hungarian refugee, right, to cross the border from Hungary to Austria on one of the border canals in November 1956. Photograph: AP’Big debates’: Hungarian foreign minister gears up for arguments with EU partnersHungary’s Péter Szijjártó arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg this morning pumped for arguments with European partners.
Szijjártó is known as Europe’s most Russia-friendly minister, and is one of the only senior figures within the EU who still travels to Moscow.
“Europe is surrounded by wars and conflicts,” the minister wrote on social media, noting that Israel, Ukraine, Nagorno-Karabakh and the Sahel are on the agenda.
While most EU ministers like to stress the bloc’s unity on key foreign policy issues, Szijjártó often underscores differences in opinion.
“Divided positions and big debates,” he said of today’s session.
Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, arrives for the foreign affairs council meeting in Luxembourg. Photograph: Julien Warnand/EPAWelcome to the blogGood morning and welcome back to the Europe blog.
We will be looking at the latest in Hungary, which today is marking the anniversary of the 1956 revolution, which was crushed by Soviet troops.
The anniversary comes at a tense time for Hungarian foreign policy, days after the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, controversially met with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and as the Hungarian government is working to seal a deal to unfreeze billions in EU funds that were suspended over rule-of-law concerns.
Orbán will be marking the anniversary with a speech this afternoon, while Budapest’s mayor, Gergely Karácsony, will address a crowd in the capital in the evening.
Members of the European parliament, meanwhile, are expected to hold a press conference in Brussels about Hungary’s recent reform attempts and whether the country has made sufficient progress on democratic standards to access European funding.
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