Dávid Vitézy, Hungary’s incoming transport and investment minister, on Monday said he is in Brussels to negotiate the rapid return and use of European Union funds earmarked for transport and infrastructure development.

Vitézy: staggering damage caused by Orbán government

In a Facebook video message, Vitézy noted that Péter Magyar, the prime minister-elect, held “extremely successful” talks with the European Commission president last week. Now, he added, technical discussions are under way to determine which projects and objectives can be funded by EU money.

The incoming minister highlighted the challenge of looming deadlines, which apply to all EU member states. He said the outgoing Orbán government’s “inaction and stalling over the past four years” had “not made things easy”.

suburban rail renovation Budapest Gödöllő Csömör metro hév
Currently, Budapest and its surrounding areas are served by four HÉV lines: H5 (Szentendre), H6 (Ráckeve), H7 (Csepel), and H8–H9 (Gödöllő and Csömör). All HÉV carriages are more than half a century old.
Image: Kemény Máté / Wikimedia Commons

“The damage caused by the outgoing government’s failure to secure and properly use available EU funds is staggering,” Vitézy said. “They let EU money go to waste, and even the funds that were accessible were not utilised.” Among his top priorities, Vitézy listed recovering frozen EU funds and salvaging those already allocated but either unspent or “improperly used” by Hungary.

Railway, tram, environment

Vitézy said Hungary had permanently lost 2 billion euros in EU funding, which, he added, could have gone towards railway and tram upgrades, as well as environmental projects. “These deadlines expired, the funds were not used in compliance with the rules, and the necessary anti-corruption guarantees were not in place,” he said. “This was a net loss caused by the outgoing government’s negligence.”

Vitézy said that the incoming government’s task now was to prevent such failures from happening again. “This means rescuing projects that are already in a very difficult position,” he said.

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He cited the Debrecen-Nyíregyháza railway upgrade, which was halted by outgoing construction and transport minister Janos Laza after the election, noting Hungary had secured direct EU funding for this project, with a deadline for use by 2027.

debrecen-nagykereki-railway-battery-plant-airport
The Pocsaj-Esztár stop on the Debrecen-Nagykereki railway line. As many as possible trains should also be replaced. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

“Hundreds of billions of forints in EU funds are still at risk,” Vitézy warned. He said his goal was to save as much of this as possible and, where feasible, secure deadline extensions.

If you missed our previous articles concerning Hungary’s public transport:

New transport minister Vitézy vows to rebuild Hungary’s railways after “years of decline”

Serbians outraged by Hungary over Belgrade–Budapest high-speed railway