European Commission has said Hungarian law changes aimed at addressing risks of conflicts of interest regarding “public interest trust” boards were insufficient to warrant the lifting of EU budget conditionality measures.
The measures recommended by the commission “to protect the EU budget from breaches of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary” were adopted on December 15, 2022, by the European Council, the EC noted in a statement.”These breaches related to the areas of public procurement, prosecutorial action, conflict of interest, the fight against corruption and the public interest trusts,” the statement noted.”Hungary formally notified the commission about specific legislative amendments regarding public interest trusts and entities maintained by them” on Dec 2, and asked the commission to propose to the council that the measures be adapted or lifted.The commission said Hungary’s changes to the law did not “adequately address the outstanding concerns on conflicts of interests” regarding the boards, so the measures should remain in place. It added that “adaptations that would be needed to remedy the situation sufficiently” had been outlined to the government.
“Hungary can at any time adopt and notify new remedies to demonstrate to the Commission that the measures adopted by the Council should be adapted or lifted,” the statement said.
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