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Minister: Hungary does not support EU budget amedment, Ukraine accession
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Hungary does not support the amendment of the European Union’s budget, nor the start of accession talks with Ukraine, Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said at a regular press briefing on Thursday.
The government believes that the EU wants to amend the budget while it has not even implemented the current one, Gulyás said, adding that no impact study had been prepared on what effect the accession of Ukraine would have on the bloc as a whole.
Concerning problems in implementing the community budget, Gulyás mentioned the EU’s “failure to pay out to Hungary and Poland their due funding”, delays in payments from the recovery fund and a generally low level of payments. He added that the European Commission’s denying the funds from Hungary and Poland was unlawful.
Concerning Ukraine’s accession, Gulyás said no assessment of Ukraine’s complying with the EU’s entry criteria had ever been made. Furthermore, it is not clear what impact that country’s integration would have on the community’s cohesion funds, the common agricultural policy, and member states’ contributions to the common budget, he added. Meanwhile, the integration of the “much better prepared” Western Balkans is being delayed, he added.
On another subject, the minister said the government would extend interest rate freezes for small and medium-sized businesses, families and student loans. The rate freezes affect 30,000 businesses and 300,000 families, he said, adding that they needed to be protected from “high interest rates caused by Brussels’s ill-advised sanctions and the war”. The rate freezes are being extended until April 1 for SMEs and until July 1, 2024 for families and student loan holders, he said. Gulyás said the measures have so far helped businesses save 2.5 million forints each, and left 420,000 forints with each family.
Meanwhile, Gulyás said that the government would provide companies a grant for setting up green energy storages.
The cabinet launched earlier a scheme with 70 billion forints for households to install solar panel systems and energy storage capacity he said, adding that so far several tens of thousands of families had applied for and received grants under the scheme.
The cabinet has now decided to expand the storage scheme for businesses, he said, adding that they could initially apply for central budget support and later for funding under the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility.
Businesses can submit their bids until February 5 next year and are required to complete their projects by April 30 in 2026, said Gulyás.
Answering a question, Gulyás said minimum wages would increase on December 1, but some of the benefits would only increase in January or February.
Concerning proposed changes to the election of the Budapest Assembly, Gulyás said both the current and the proposed system were democratic and district mayors would not be excluded from the assembly in the new system.