Fidesz: EC expects member states to pay more but can’t account for Ukraine spending

While the European Commission expects member states to contribute an additional tens of billions of euros to funding EU programmes, it cannot account for exactly how much and on what grounds it has spent on Ukraine, MEPs of ruling Fidesz have said in a letter to the head of the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee.

In their letter to Monika Hohlmeier, Tamás Deutsch and Andor Deli said the ongoing mid-term review of the EU’s 2021-2027 financial framework “has highlighted a serious suspicion of a very worrying financial irregularity”.

They said it was worrying that while the Committee on Budgetary Control had refused to clear the accounts of certain EU agencies for “financial irregularities of a much smaller scale” and was investigating member states “on the basis of unfounded, often politically motivated allegations by dubious organisations”, it had so far done “nothing to address the blatant negligence” of the EC in funding a non-EU country.

Fidesz politicians Deutsch and Deli pointed out that this had happened with the committee having taken an active role in monitoring the proper use of EU funds by member states under Hohlmeier’s leadership.

They called on Hohlmeier to write to the EC in order to clarify the matter and protect the bloc’s financial interests, and to include the matter on the agenda of the Budgetary Control Committee as soon as possible.

Source: MTI