Leftist Opposition Slams Government over EU Funding

(MTI) – The opposition Socialist Party and the Democratic Coalition voiced sharp criticism over the government’s EU policy on Thursday, after Hungary received the agreement on EU funding for 2014-2020.

The Socialists said that Prime Minister Viktor Orban is a lot less militant with the European Union when “the enemy comes with a bag of money” then in other situations.

Socialist MEP Istvan Ujhelyi said in a statement that while “European values stink for Orban, euros received as a gift do not”.

Ujhelyi insisted that most projects in Hungary are financed from community funds and without Europe’s assistance the national economy would soon go bankrupt. That is why, he said, Hungary should have an appropriate share of Europe’s resources.

Ujhelyi accused the ruling parties of “blackmailing” towns and cities through suggesting that if their residents vote on other parties further developments could not be financed, and insisted that the financing comes from the EU rather than from the government.

“The government has also lied that they had successfully negotiated financing for the next cycle, whereas we would get a few billion euros less than before,” Ujhelyi said. Between 2014-2020, EU cohesion funding for Hungary will be actually reduced by 150,000 forints per capita, he argued.

According to the Democratic Coalition (DK), Orban has “nothing to be proud of” as he only managed to secure 1,300 billion forints less for 2014-2020 than DK head Ferenc Gyurcsany had negotiated for the previous cycle when he was prime minister. DK’s managing deputy chair Csaba Molnar said in a statement sent to MTI that “this shows which prime minister has been more successful and who was considered as an equal partner in the EU”.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters