Hungarian businessmen receive a total of HUF 91.7 billion EU subsidies

The Lajos Simicska-Zsolt Nyerges duo, Sándor Csányi, and Tamás Leisztinger have been receiving the highest sum of agricultural subsidies from the European Union fund for several years. The three company groups were given to 6% of the total amount of all allocated payment entitlements in Hungary between 2007 and 2015. The biggest winner of the EU support cycle was the Bólyi Agricultural Production and Trade Ltd., receiving HUF 21.6 billion, index.hu reported.

Similarly to the previous years, it has been revealed that the state of Hungary supported the companies connected to the wealthiest businessmen. The business empires of the Lajos Simicska-Zsolt Nyerges duo, the OTP CEO Sandor Csányi, and the company group of Tamás Leisztinger received the highest amounts from agricultural subsidies in Hungary. Previous subsidy calculations made on the EU funds revealed that 70% of the total annual budget was granted to companies belonging to the top 10% of Hungary.

Most of the subsidies given to the companies were under the titles of livestock holding modernization and land-based subsidiary.

Based on the annual governmental compliance round-up statistics, index.hu found that the business empires of the Lajos Simicska-Zsolt Nyerges duo, the CEO of OTP Bank Group Sandor Csányi, and the company group of Tamás Leisztinger received a total of HUF 97.1 billion from the HUF 1500 billion total support earmarked for the Hungarian agriculture from 2007 to 2015.

Company groups connected to Csányi received HUF 37.7 billion, the Simicska-Nyerges duo received HUF 33.2 billion, and Leisztinger were given to HUF 26.2 billion.

There was also some noticeable growth in subsidies from 2013 to 2014 granted to the home village of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, but the amount is significantly smaller than the sums given to the three largest groups.

based on the article of index.hu
translated by Gábor Hajnal

Source: index.hu