budget

Hungary public debt rises to 81 pc / GDP

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Hungary’s public debt rose to 81 percent of GDP at the end of the fourth quarter, according to a first reading of data the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) released on Wednesday.

The debt rose from 74.2 percent at the end of the third quarter and from 65.5 percent at the end of 2019.

In absolute terms, it was 38,368 billion forints at the end of 2020.

Hungary’s constitution stipulates that year-end debt-GDP ratio should decline to 50 percent. Government spending on pandemic measures and economic stimulus have swollen the debt.

Finance minister discusses recovery with banking sector leaders

Finance Minister Mihály Varga met banking sector leaders on Tuesday to discuss tools lenders can use to support Hungary’s economic recovery.

In a post on his Facebook page, Varga said he met Hungarian Banking Association chairman Radovan Jelasity, deputy chairman András Becsei and chief secretary Levente Kovács.

“We discussed what tools financial institutions can use to support the jump-start of the Hungarian economy,” Varga said.

He acknowledged banks’ cooperation involving a blanket moratorium on loan repayments during the coronavirus crisis, their 55 billion forint (EUR 153m) extraordinary contribution to Hungary’s pandemic war chest, and their active corporate lending.

“The coronavirus pandemic has proved that Hungarian financial institutions can be counted on in difficult times, too,” Varga said.

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Read alsoBudapest pays more tax than govt support received, says Mayor Karácsony

Hungary GDP down 5.1 pc yr/yr in 2020

Daily News Hungary economy

Hungary’s economy in 2020 declined by an annual 5.1 percent, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Tuesday, based on a first estimate.

GDP grew by 1.1 percent in the fourth quarter last year compared with the previous quarter and fell by 3.7 percent compared with the same period of the previous year.

According to seasonally and calendar-adjusted data, the economy’s performance declined by an annual 4.3 percent in the fourth quarter.

Industry and the IT and communication sectors contributed the most to growth, the KSH said.

Finance Minister Mihály Varga said in a video on Facebook that

the government was mulling further developments to the tune of “several thousand billion forints”, adding that his ministry was expecting the economy to return to a growth path in the second quarter this year and “produce a two-digit growth” in the period.

Varga noted the economy’s resilience and the government’s economic protection measures, adding that Hungary’s recession of 5.1 percent in 2020 had been smaller than expected, and below the European Union average of 6.4 percent. He also noted that Hungary had outperformed Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, and the Czech Republic.

Analysts polled by MTI hailed the Q4 growth figure, saying that the economy had much greater recovery potential than expected, which foreshadowed a rebound in 2021, the magnitude of which would be determined by the speed at which restrictions were eased.

ING Bank chief analyst Péter Virovácz said

the Q4 figure was a “huge surprise, exceeding the most optimistic forecasts”.

The 1.1 percent figure was “more dynamic than the full year average”, with a positive impact on 2021 as a whole, he said.

Gábor Regős, head of Századvég’s macroeconomic division, said the growth was surprising in light of restrictions introduced in November. He said it appeared that most sectors had done as well or even better than in the last quarter of 2019, “signalling a fast recovery”.

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Read alsoBudapest mayor Karácsony: Govt in ‘sham’ talks over recovery funds

Budapest pays more tax than govt support received, says Mayor Karácsony

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Budapest pays more tax than the government support it receives, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said on Facebook on Monday in response to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s remarks in parliament concerning the city’s finances.

The new city leaders elected in October 2019 must pay nearly four times as much municipal tax during the coronavirus epidemic than the previous city leaders did, Karácsony said.

“The recovery of the country, including Budapest, must not be an issue focusing on a war of numbers,” he added.

Orbán said in parliament concerning accusations that the government is “bleeding local governments dry” that Budapest’s account showed 122 billion forints at the end of December last year. Orbán insisted that 44 percent of all government support or 3,000 billion forints went to Budapest last year as against 6-12 percent to some regions in the Hungarian provinces.

Karácsony said that despite the crisis, it was not the government supporting the metropolitan council but the other way round.

“We are fulfilling numerous public tasks without any state support and we are paying extra to the government,”

he said, and insisted that Budapest was a net contributor to the central budget.

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Read alsoBudapest prepares ‘tourism reopening package’ to help hospitality industry

Innovation minister: Universities ‘winners’ of EU recovery fund

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Hungarian universities are the clear winners of the European Union recovery fund, with 1,509 billion forints (EUR 4.2bn) of the 6,000 billion forints available to Hungary to be spent on developments at universities between 2021 and 2026, the minister of innovation and technology said on Friday.

László Palkovics said the government’s decision would unleash an unprecedented amount of funding — four times the total amount of support for higher education during the previous EU budget period.

The 1,509 billion forints will be used to fund universities, develop an innovation ecosystem around universities and strengthen links between universities and vocational education institutions, he said.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Facebook that Istvan Stumpf, a former constitutional court judge, will be in charge of coordinating the transformation of Hungary’s higher education system.

Orbán added that the reform of universities would be the most important programme of the years ahead.

Orbán’s press chief Bertalan Havasi said that Stumpf would see to his duties as a government commissioner from Feb. 1. Stumpf will coordinate government tasks related to the operation of a new ownership model for higher education, and he will report to the prime minister, Havasi added.

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Read also21 professors from Debrecen University stand up against the government

Orbán cabinet is very optimistic: economy could grow by up to 6 percent this year

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Hungary’s economy could grow by up to 6 percent this year and expand by even 6 to 7 percent in 2022, leaving neighbouring countries behind to become a forerunner in the region, Márton Nagy, senior economic advisor to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, told commercial broadcaster Inforadio on Tuesday evening.

Nagy attributed a rebound in the country’s economic performance despite the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic to two factors. One concerns the economic policy pursued over the past 10 years, as a result of which the economy has become “shock resistant”, while the other concerns a set of crisis management measures aimed at protecting and revitalising the economic sector, he said.

Nagy said

the government’s formula was simple and aimed at boosting investments while protecting jobs.

Nagy highlighted the importance of granting wage subsidies and introducing a moratorium on loan repayments.

The main focus this year and in 2022 will be on state investments in the economy, which Nagy said would “supplement private investments”.

He said the rule of thumb in using resources was to make sure that every single forint spent should generate an equivalent of at least 1.5 forints in contribution to the country’s GDP.

The focus of industry policy in the next two years will be the construction sector and the manufacturing of building materials, Nagy said.

For the period 2021-2027, a total of 50,000 billion forints (EUR 140bn) is available for state economic development purposes, which is nearly 100 percent of Hungary’s annual GDP,

Nagy said, noting that 30 percent of that amount would come in EU funds and the rest in domestic and other resources.

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Read alsoHungary wages up 8.8 pc yr/yr in October

Hungarian opposition accuses govt of waging political campaign to ‘punish’ local councils

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Six opposition parties published a joint statement on Tuesday accusing the government of pursuing a political campaign aimed at “punishing local councils” run by the opposition, especially the administration of Budapest.

DK, Jobbik, LMP, Momentum, the Socialists and Párbeszéd accused the Orban government of curbing the powers of local governments in an “unprincipled and senseless” way, thereby hurting several million Hungarians.

The statement said it was the “duty” of local governments to inform citizens that at least 100 billion forints (EUR 280m) was being taken away from them in an “arbitrary and politically motivated” way.

It added that the Orbán government was the only central administration in Europe that was “robbing local councils of their last remaining income” instead of supporting them at the time of the coronavirus epidemic and the current crisis.

The opposition parties insisted that the government was ploughing hundreds of billions of forints of public money into private foundations and “funding their own power and economic interests”.

The parties said “after a change of government in 2022, the democratic opposition alliance will restore local government, the autonomy of towns and villages, and will ensure financing goes to local governments free of political considerations”.

As we wrote yesterday, the municipal government of Budapest is launching an information campaign with a view to providing a picture of the situation in the capital, details HERE.

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Read alsoOfficial: Tax cuts to continue in 2021

Opposition Párbeszéd lambasts govt’s crisis management

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Opposition Parbeszed MP Tamás Mellár said in an online lecture that the Hungarian economy was not stronger or “more crisis-proof” than it had been in 2009 despite considerable European Union assistance.

Referring to macro-economic indicators, Mellár said that the 2020 figures were the same as those at the time of the 2009 crisis, and called the government’s crisis management “ill-advised”.

Mellár insisted the government had only spent 2-3 percent of GDP on crisis management measures, in spite of plans targeting 20 percent.

A significant part of available funds have gone towards “reducing damage or throwing money to the wind”, he said, and argued that assisting sports projects or the churches would not boost the economy.

Money has been “poured into tourism and catering”, sectors which are not expected to take a growth path for the time being, he added.

According to Mellár, however, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had no alternative:

“he had to save the national capitalist class he had created in the interest of political stability”.

Mellár said that Hungary’s GDP had been down by 6.5 percent in 2020, while the deficit had reached 9 percent, with the foreign debt climbing 80 percent from an earlier 65. Some fifty percent of the deficit, however, has been the result of spending on projects in December “that had nothing to do with modernising the country”, with grants financing “pet projects” by companies close to the government, Mellár said. The crisis management measures have failed to address the problems of those in need, he insisted.

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Read alsoHungarian opposition parties lay down joint government principles

Pandemic response, economic protection ensured by Hungary’s 2020 central budget, says government

Daily News Hungary economy

Hungary’s budget deficit, excluding local councils, came to 2,250.5 billion forints in December last year, bringing the deficit to 5,548.6 billion forints (EUR 15.4bn) at the end of 2020, the finance ministry said in a preliminary release of data on Monday.

The ministry said the government’s “most important goal” during the first and second waves of the pandemic was “to defend lives and preserve the ability of the Hungarian economy to function”.

The government has decided “there can be no financial obstacle to providing proper health care for or preserving the job of anyone”, it added.

The ministry said

the cash flow-based deficit was expected to reach 9 percent of GDP in 2020.

The central budget ran a deficit of 4,953.5 billion forints for the full year, separate state funds had a 46.7 billion forint surplus and the social insurance funds were 641.8 billion forints in the red.

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Read alsoHungary wages up 8.8 pc yr/yr in October

Government working to keep local councils functioning, says official

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Helping Hungary’s local councils stay operational is in everyone’s interest, Balazs Orbán, a state secretary of the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office, wrote in a letter to György Gémesi, head of the alliance of local governments MOSZ, on Monday.

As we wrote before, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony and 37 mayors of Budapest districts and cities around Hungary demanded in a joint statement that the government withdraw a decision on halving the local business tax. (Read more: The final blow? Mayors call on Orbán to withdraw decision halving local business tax)

Municipalities with fewer than 25,000 residents will be automatically compensated for lost revenues, Orbán wrote, adding that the government was open to negotiations with larger cities. Also, Hungary’s permanent representative office in Brussels is prepared to help local council leaders whose cities are in need of financial support from the European Union, the state secretary added.

Orbán noted that Gémesi in the past had criticised the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic on multiple occasions, particularly its financing of local councils. The state secretary said the burdens that come with Hungary’s response to the pandemic were being shared fairly by the whole of Hungarian society.

Due to the pandemic and its effects on the economy, Hungary’s GDP is projected to contract by 6.4 percent in 2020 compared with expectations of a 4 percent growth rate at the beginning of last year, Orbán said.

And in a situation like this, he added, “hardly anything can be more important . than protecting jobs”. The key to this is to reduce the burdens on Hungarian small and medium-sized businesses, such as the business tax, he said, arguing that SMEs employed the most people in the country.

Orbán said that “contrary to claims by certain opposition city leaders”, the government was not taking “a single cent” away from local councils by halving the local business tax payable by SMEs.

Instead, the businesses will be keeping that money and the measure is actually an expenditure for the government, he added.

“The government believes that instead of raising taxes in a time of crisis, the burdens on people and business should be reduced,” Orbán wrote.

The government spent more than 1,000 billion forints (EUR 2.75bn) on health-care measures in response to the pandemic in 2020, 3,700 billion on rebooting the economy and close to 3,000 forints on supporting workers and businesses, the state secretary wrote.

The moratorium on loan repayments has saved families and businesses 2,000 billion forints, he said, noting that the government has also begun reintroducing the 13th month pension. Also, this year alone, it will spend over 197 billion forints on wage hikes for health-care workers, Orbán added.

He also noted that

the 2021 budget allocates 865 billion forints in state support to local councils, 17 percent more than last year’s budget.

Fidesz MEPs: EU budget Hungary’s ‘historic success’

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Hungary has achieved “historic success” through the European Parliament’s approval of the European Union’s next seven-year budget and post-pandemic recovery package at a plenary session on Wednesday, two MEPs of ruling Fidesz said in a joint statement after the vote.

The Multiannual Financial Framework will provide a total 1,074 trillion euros during the period of 2021-2027.

In the statement, Tamás Deutsch called the EP vote a victory for Hungary, for Hungarian-Polish cooperation, and for Europe as a whole.

“Hungary defended the EU funding it is entitled to at last week’s European Council summit and during the EP plenary on the next EU budget,” Deutsch said, adding that as a result no political conditions could be set for the allocation and use of funds Hungary is due to receive under the EU treaties.

Enikő Győri said that the budget would provide a major investment impetus for member states in overcoming the current health and economic crisis.

She said that the agreement “has shown that the member states are equal”.

“It is proof that, even if we are of a different opinion, we can always reach an agreement in the end. We can rightly celebrate,” she said.

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Read alsoJobbik MEP Gyöngyösi: What is this EU budget agreement actually about?

Hungary debt management stable, says finance minister

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The management of Hungary’s public debt is stable and based on several pillars, Mihály Varga, the finance minister, said in a YouTube video on Monday.

Next year does not harbour any notable risks, and major reserves are at hand just in case, he said.

The government’s principles for how to manage debt followed so far will be adhered to in the future too. He added that the ratio of FX debt to the total is falling, and more and more domestic investors are involved in state financing.

The net financing requirement next year is expected to amount to 3,332 billion forints, and half of this is planned to be raised on the forint bond market.

Also, a new 30-year green forint bond issue is planned.

Varga said the global economic downturn was more severe this year than in 2008. He noted the government had to provide immediate job and business support and recovery aid, all of this amounting to around 28 percent of GDP.

The Hungarian economy was in much better shape to withstand the current calamity than it was during the 2008 financial crisis, he said, adding that crisis management was covered by the country’s own resources.

The public debt, he noted, has shrunk in recent years, from 80 percent of GDP in 2010 to 65.4 percent by the end of last year. And external debt was reduced from 56 percent of GDP in 2010 to 34 percent by the end of 2019.

At the same time, the public finances have remained stable and Hungary’s international financial standing has improved, Varga said.

The economy is likely to contract by 6.4 percent this year, while a budget deficit of around 9 percent of GDP is anticipated. Whereas the public debt level will again rise to around 80 percent, it will still be well below that of many other countries hit by the crisis, he added. The aim remains to reduce the budget deficit and debt in the next few years, the minister said.

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Read alsoHungary debt management stable, says finance minister

Orbán’s response to Soros: ‘Europe has not surrendered’

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The European Union has maintained its unity and won, George Soros lost and it would be time for Europeans to “finally send him home to America”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in response to a recent opinion piece that the US financier posted on the commentary website Project Syndicate.

“Soros is shedding crocodile tears and while this will not return the money that the speculator has stolen from millions of people, families and businesses, it does provide some modest satisfaction,” Orbán said in the document forwarded to MTI.

“The most corrupt man and network in the world” has good reason to be disappointed because Europe has not surrendered and Soros’s grandiose plan has been suspended by the European Council, Orban added.

The spotlight is now on budget resources, the recovery fund, and who has access to what and how, the prime minister said, adding that the EU’s funds have so far been kept under strict European supervision by multiple parties in all member states.

“The issue here is about something else,” he said. What was really at stake at this week’s EU summit in Brussels was who will govern Europe in the future, he added.

“Will Europe be governed by the governments elected by the citizens of Member States and their council, or will Soros succeed in building a new power structure?” Orbán said.

The prime minister said this power structure comprised a “network of NGOs disseminating liberal, post-national and post-Christian ideas, along with the mainstream left-wing and right-wing media conveying and reinforcing their ideas; a significant group of MEPs; the Soros envoys brought to the Commission; and a so-called rule of law mechanism linking them all together”.

“The plan is as simple as it is grandiose,” with a “Soros financial center” funding thousands of NGOs, research institutes, analytical workshops and activists who influence the direction of mainstream media, he said. It buys up and links a critical mass of MEPs and puts the people who work for him in key positions in the European Commission, such as Frans Timmermans and Vera Jourova, he added.

“Finally, they push through a piece of legislation that sets political preconditions – gender, migration, an open society, liberal democracy – for Member States to have access to EU funds,” he said.

In line with his plan, countries that insist on their national sovereignty, Christian roots and traditional family model, such as Poland and Hungary, “must be strung up in this carefully devised noose”, Orbán said.

And the reluctant, like the better-off central European countries and the recalcitrant Scandinavians, must be relegated to perform public penance to better understand the essence of liberal reasoning, he added.

Orbán said that fortunately, at the last minute, European governments “came to their senses”. They read the country reports on the rule of law, which he said Soros and Timmermans had dictated to Jourova, and suddenly, everyone understood that the verdict had already been handed down before the trial and that other trials would take place after Hungary and Poland.

Orbán added that the decision of the European Council this week was an open declaration of opposition to “Soros’s attempt to take power”. Political issues cannot be linked to financial issues, subjective criteria cannot be the basis for financial decisions, and “the legal procedure laid down in the Treaty of the European Union cannot be applied in the manner Soros seeks,” he said.

“There is no explanation as to why we Europeans tolerate an American speculator building and buying an EU system of influence with American money,” Orbán said.

“Until European leaders take this last step, we will have to face attempts by him and his people to seize power over and over again,” he added, stating that the migration and gender action plans from the “Soros workshop” were already on the table.

“It’s high time to put an end to George Soros’ European joy ride,” Orbán said concluding his response.

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Read alsoOrbán: Europe ‘must not succumb to Soros network’

Jobbik MEP Gyöngyösi: What is this EU budget agreement actually about?

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Remarks from Jobbik MEP Márton Gyöngyösi:

The European Union’s founding fathers may hardly have thought that the friendship and cooperation based community of European nations gets to the point by the early 2020s where certain member state leaders, after trampling upon the rule of law at home and trumpeting slogans the likes of which were last heard in Western Europe in the 1930s, would go as far as to openly threaten the EU’s vital economic recovery plan with a veto for their own political gains.

The fact that we got here must be a serious lesson for all decision makers who firmly believe in democratic values and the idea of the common Europe.

Despite all the difficulties, the good news is that we can already see the outline of a historic agreement on the common European loan, the recovery fund and the next seven-year budget, along with the most concrete rule of law criteria laid out in the deal. Although it still needs the European Parliament’s nod next week, the lion’s share of the work seems to have been done. Of course, it wouldn’t be a genuine European agreement if it did not allow everyone to interpret the achievements according to their own liking. They can do this for now, since it takes months for the results to be seen.

The biggest debate was about the actual rule of law criteria as the western states are increasingly annoyed by how certain Eastern European governments fail to spend the EU funds on their allocated purposes.

Let us state here that Hungary’s authoritarian Fidesz regime is built on a system where the EU monies are channelled to Orbán’s loyal men and the local oligarchs who secure Fidesz’s election victories through vote buying and electoral frauds in return, often keeping the local people in feudalistic political and societal conditions. No wonder Orbán has categorically opposed the idea of introducing the rule of law criteria, even with no binding force, into any section where money was at stake. For this struggle of his, he found a moderately reliable ally in the Polish government in which the issue caused a serious divide between the coalition partners in the end. 

Did Orbán achieve what he wanted? Clearly not. What he achieved by his combative stance and blatant threats in the past months was that he can now challenge the rule of law criteria in the European Court of Justice and if things go his way, he will not have to face such sanctions before the 2022 elections that would jeopardize his pre-election financial plans. Of course, this is just an opportunity and not a security for him as the Court may make a decision much sooner. On the other hand, Orbán has squandered all his remaining political capital for this opportunity: he is now facing truly serious consequences in the European People’s Party. The German and Austrian parties which protected him thus far have had enough of him by now and the V4 Group, which had long been considered as something of an anti-EU alliance, is now completely disbanded: the Czech Republic and Slovakia never shared Orbán’s views while the Polish government coalition got into a crisis.

And yet, many publicists interpreted this agreement in the Hungarian media as a victory for Orbán, since he gained time, in theory at least.

That is an interesting approach, especially in light of the fact that the Hungarian PM has just signed something he specifically had Fidesz’ parliamentary majority “forbid” him last summer and to which he responded by defaming the German nation in an intolerable tone in his letter to Manfred Weber just as recently as a few days ago. Of course, if you have just a little insight into how Fidesz operates, you know that  Orbán typically aims to gain time just for the next few months. If you think this is grand strategic statesmanship – it’s your loss.

Fortunately, the European Union has a longer foresight than just two years and, historically speaking, this agreement may be considered successful since we were able to make common progress in several areas where such steps would have been unthinkable even a couple of years ago. The direction is set – and the freeloaders like Orbán might stay with us for a little longer but they have no future in this community.

Europe has made a decision and I hope we, Hungarians are also going to make a good decision at the right moment and show the door to those who look to the 1930s instead of the 2030s for inspiration.

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Read alsoThe Guardian: Hungary is worse for the EU than Brexit

EU summit – Opposition: Orbán ‘suffered defeat’

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The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) has insisted that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán suffered a defeat at the European Union summit on Thursday.

DK MEP Klára Dobrev told an online news conference today that Orbán “might have thought he could sell his defeat at home as a victory”, but it soon became clear that “not a single letter” of the proposal made by the European Parliament and the European Council on rule-of-law protections had changed.

Nevertheless, Orbán gave up his planned veto of the EU budget, she added.

Dobrev noted that EU Commissioner Vera Jourova and MEP Petri Sarvamaa, the European Parliament’s chief negotiator, expected a European court ruling on the rule-of-law provision — a key concession to Hungary and Poland — in a matter of months rather than years.

Meanwhile, it was reaffirmed, she said, that the legislation would come into force on Jan. 1 after Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte requested clarification.

“After that, it would be hard to maintain that Viktor Orbán left Brussels victorious,” Dobrev said.

Still, Hungarians, she said, will receive EU subsidies. “Businesses, families, NGOs, health care and local governments won,” the DK politician added.

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Read alsoHungary, Poland reject ‘what is unacceptable’ – Politicians celebrate the EU summit

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Read alsoBudapest, Warsaw mayors: Hungary, Poland governments ‘back from the brink’

Budapest, Warsaw mayors: Hungary, Poland governments ‘back from the brink’

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The Hungarian and Polish governments “stepped back from the brink” in the last moment; “they could be hailing a victory but in fact they laid down their arms in Brussels”, the mayors of the two capitals said in a joint statement on Friday.

The prime ministers of the two countries “tried to thwart the (EU’s) rule of law mechanism, but it has come out unharmed”, Gergely Karácsony of Budapest, and Rafal Trzaskowski, his Polish counterpart, said in their statement.

The mayors said they trusted that the rule of law mechanism would be applied as soon as possible to “prevent systemic stealing of EU funds and attacks against the independence of the judiciary”.

Karácsony and Trzaskowski urged efforts against economic and social impacts of the epidemic financed from the EU’s Next Generation fund enabled by Thursday’s agreement.

According to the statement, the pandemic has the most detrimental impacts in cities.

“The war against the crisis must be fought in the cities,” the authors said, and called on the EU to ensure that national governments involve municipalities in each step of the planning and distribution processes concerning European recovery funds.

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Read alsoHungary, Poland reject ‘what is unacceptable’ – Politicians celebrate the EU summit

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Read alsoThe Guardian: Hungary is worse for the EU than Brexit

EU summit – Orbán: ‘We’ve protected Hungarians’ money’

orbán morawiecki eu budget veto

After a deal was struck on the EU budget and recovery fund at the European Union summit in Brussels on Thursday evening, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a video on Facebook that “common sense has prevailed: we’ve protected Hungarians’ money.”

Orbán said there had been a last round of negotiations with the Hungarian delegation. “We ran the last lap.”

“Everyone played their last card,” he said, adding that an agreement was struck. “I must say, common sense has prevailed.”

“We won because in hard times, during the epidemic and the economic crisis, there’s no time for ideological or political debates that hold us back from taking action,” he said.

The prime minister said that in the end, European unity had been preserved.

Orbán added, however, that proposals were still on the table that many member states like Hungary would dislike, referring to migration and anti-family measures “planned by Brussels”.

He said there would be disputes ahead, “but today we’ve definitely achieved three things.”

Orbán said Hungary had succeeded in preventing the European basic treaty from being bypassed and from forcing on Hungarians “decisions that we don’t accept”.

The prime minister added that “Hungarian money will also be protected”.

Charles Michel, President of the European Council, announced on Twitter that an agreement has been reached on the EU’s multiannual budget and recovery fund at the summit.

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Read alsoBreaking! Hungary and Poland withdraw from the veto on EU budget

EU leaders pave way for implementation of landmark recovery package

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The leaders of the 27 European Union (EU) member states on Thursday reached an agreement on the EU long-term budget and recovery fund, paving way for the implementation of the recovery package totaling over 1.8 trillion euros (2.19 trillion U.S. dollars) to tackle the socio-economic consequences of COVID-19 pandemic.

The landmark recovery package will drive forward EU’s green and digital transitions, European Council President Charles Michel tweeted during the EU Summit, which kicked off Thursday in Brussels. He underlined that “now we can start with the implementation and build back our economies.”

“Europe moves forward!” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on her Twitter account, noting the recovery package will power the EU’s recovery and build a more resilient, green and digital bloc.

The EU’s recovery package, also the largest fiscal stimulus package ever that was set up in July, combined the long-term EU budget for 2021-2027, or the so-called Multiannual Financial Framework worth nearly 1.1 trillion euros, and the recovery fund, named Next Generation EU, which was financed with a borrowing of 750 billion euros.

In addition to underpinning the EU’s recovery from the pandemic, the recovery package was also designed to help transform the EU through its major policies, particularly the European Green Deal, the digital revolution and resilience.

In November, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament reached a political agreement which ensures that the EU institutions cooperate even more effectively to make sure the package goes to where the needs are, in a timely and transparent manner.

The recovery package needs to be ratified by all member states before coming into effect. Poland and Hungary once blocked it as they opposed linking the access to the fund with the rule of law.

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Read alsoBreaking! Hungary and Poland withdraw from the veto on EU budget

Orbán: Agreement protecting EU unity within reach

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A “good agreement” serving the unity of the European Union “is within reach”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Thursday, ahead of a two-day summit of EU heads of state and government.

Orbán said the summit talks would be “a fight for the unity of our shared continent”.

“Besides a victory for the EU, common sense must also prevail,” he said. “Our nations and millions of people are in dire need of it,” he said, referring measures to combat the pandemic and its economic fallout.

“We must act rationally to find reliable solutions and the victory of common sense,” the prime minister said.

He said preparations had taken weeks, but now the agreement was very close.

Orbán said health-care services must be provided to everyone in need, and the countries “who really need it” must be provided financial aid.

“We have high hopes about today,” he said, referring to the EU summit.

At the summit, EU leaders will discuss the EU’s 2021-2027 financial framework, its coronavirus recovery package and regulations that would tie accessing those funds to rule-of-law conditions. The summit will also touch on pandemic coordination efforts, climate change, security issues and foreign relations.

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Read alsoBreaking! Hungary and Poland withdraw from the veto on EU budget