Danger in Transylvania? Tension between the Hungarian and Romanian government

G4 Media, which regularly reports on the Hungarian government’s investments in Transylvania, contacted the Romanian Foreign Ministry with questions about Hungarian investments in Romania. The answer was that Romania has not given any level of consent to Hungary’s investment programmes in Transylvania.

Large Hungarian investments in Transylvania

G4 Media contacted the Romanian Foreign Ministry with questions after Mónika Kozma, head of the Pro Economica Foundation, said in February that Hungary would launch a tender for rural development support in the region for farmers in counties along the Hungarian-Romanian border, TransTelex.ro reports.

At the same time, Kozma also reported that the implementation of around one hundred large investments of the economic development programme financed by the Hungarian government in Szeklerland is progressing well.

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The majority of the agricultural and food processing plants that have been awarded tenders are already in operation. Meanwhile, the rest are due to be handed over to entrepreneurs by the end of December 2023. After the small-scale farm tenders in Szeklerland, the Pro Economica Foundation, which runs the programme, is waiting for the green light to launch the farm tenders in Partium, Kozma said in mid-February.

Not everyone agrees

However, Romania doesn’t think it’s such a good idea. “There is no bilateral agreement at any level between Romania and Hungary for the Hungarian state to implement financing programmes on Romanian territory. In the absence of such an agreement, there is no consent on the part of the Romanian side for the Hungarian side to run such programmes in Romania,” Foreign Ministry representatives told G4Media.

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Mónika Kozma also acknowledged that a Romanian-Hungarian agreement is still needed to launch the programme in the Partium region. Negotiations on this are ongoing between the two sides, her statement revealed.

Since Viktor Orbán’s speech in Tusnádfürdő (Baile Tusnad), Hungarian investments in Transylvania have been a recurring theme in the Romanian press. Newspapers claim that over the past ten years, the PM has spent billions of forints, mainly on the Hungarian community in Transylvania. Referring to the lack of transparency of the funding, they note that a significant part of the funds ends up in various foundations.

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Source: TransTelex.hu, DNH