Fidesz MEP: EC proposal for budget, recovery fund unacceptable for Hungary

The European Commission proposal for the bloc’s 2021-2027 financial framework and for the post-pandemic recovery fund are unacceptable for Hungary, ruling Fidesz MEP Tamás Deutsch said on Thursday in Brussels.

Speaking in the break of the European Parliament’s plenary session, he said the “unfair elements” of the 1,100 billion euro budget and the 750 billion euro recovery fund must be amended.

Deutsch called it a success that the EP’s largest party family, the European People’s Party (EPP), has submitted amendment proposals containing issues in Hungary’s interest as basic priorities of the EPP. In a letter sent to EP head David Sassoli, the EPP called for the funding of cohesion policy to be maintained at 2020 levels in the new budget and for the weight of the common agricultural policy to remain unchanged, Deutsch said.

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Regarding the recovery fund aimed to remedy the economic and social damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the EPP called for “fair” distribution of funds where countries of similar levels of development and revenues receive roughly the same support.

That approach is also in line with the Hungarian standpoint, Deutsch said.

Regarding the EP’s Thursday session on the rule of law, Deutsch said a “substantial” but minority group within the EP rejects the proposal to introduce into the EU budget “a legal element falsely called conditionality”, he said.

Deutsch said the draft “containing murky legal categories” would empower the EC to impose sanctions on individual member states by issuing “arbitrary political allegations tailored to a particular member state”.

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Since such a regulation can only be passed with a unanimous vote, and “at least three or four countries oppose the financial blackmail within”, the proposal will not pass the EP, Deutsch said.

Meanwhile, Deutsch slammed Hungarian opposition MEPs for “mobilising serious resources” to implement conditionality in EU funding. The true aim is to give the EC a tool for “politically motivated blackmail”, he said.

Source: MTI