Justice minister: EU budget proposal by Finland ‘unacceptable’ to Hungary

A European Union budget proposal submitted on Tuesday by Finland, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, is unacceptable to Hungary because it further reduces cohesion funding, the justice minister said after an EU general affairs council meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday.

The Finnish presidency has failed to submit an unbiased proposal, Judit Varga told the press after the meeting which had focused on the seven-year EU financial framework to start in 2021.

Several member states have already noted that the draft had failed to reflect their opinions and ignored the requests made by the Friends of Cohesion grouping, she said.

The proposal is unacceptable in terms of both contribution payments and cohesion funding, and fails to offer a sound good basis for political debates, Varga said.

It is also unacceptable because it sets compliance with rule of law criteria as a precondition for receiving EU support and envisages financing the integration of migrants from cohesion funding, she said. At present there is no draft that would regulate the rule of law criteria with legal certainty, and the absence of such regulations “will clearly result in a veto”.

Source: MTI