Hungary to “receive” 5.6 billion EUR from the EU to fight against coronavirus

The reason I put receive between quotation marks is that Hungary got the chance to redirect more than 4.8 billion EUR from EU-financed and mostly already running development projects to the additional support of the healthcare and the SME sectors. The remaining 855 million EUR is only the sum which is not already tied to a non-coronavirus project, so it can be regarded as financial support.

According to hvg, the European Union is helping its member states with more than 37 billion EUR, but most of this sum is only money countries are now allowed to redirect from already running development projects to help the healthcare and the SME sector or to protect quickly disappearing jobs. Members of the European Parliament approved the package in the first remote voting in its history.

The European Commission’s initiative aims to help the healthcare system, the SME sector, and would like to provide financial resources for member states to protect jobs. Furthermore, they can use the support to strengthen other vulnerable parts of their economy.

• Coronavirus – Hungary to produce medicine to stop the epidemic
• Five misconceptions about coronavirus
• This is what Hungarians think about the coronavirus

Hungary can get 5.6 billion EUR (2 thousand billion HUF, which is more than 10 pc of Hungarian annual GDP) from the package, but most of that money (4.8 billion EUR) is already assigned to running projects. The other, smaller part of this money (855 million EUR) is the so-called pre-financing of the structural development funds which Brussels allows to stay in the member states, which can spend it on the above-mentioned goals.

According to Index, the Hungarian government calculates with hundreds of thousands of unemployed people because of the economic depression that has already started due to the coronavirus epidemic. Employers hope that the crisis will be short, and they stress that they aim to re-employ the experienced colleagues who they had to send on a holiday because of the circumstances.

The MEPs also extended the purpose system of the EU’s Solidarity Fund on public healthcare emergencies. This way, in 2020, a further 800 million EUR can be sent to the member states.

The Parliament also approved the modification of the airport slot rules, so thanks to that, airlines can close the flights on which there are not enough passengers. 

Source: hvg.hu, index.hu