The EU distributes millions of euros, Hungary receives nothing
The European Commission distributes 100 million euros among the member states most affected by the refugee crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Among the recipients of that tremendous amount of money are Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Hungary is not among them, even though Budapest needs as much euro as possible to cope with the looming energy crisis, inflation and the weakening of the forint.
Based on the European Commission’s statement, the EU decided to give a maximum of 400 million euros to the member states affected by the Ukrainian refugee crisis. They transferred the first 248 million euros of that amount in May to the five “front states” of the EU:
- Poland
- Romania
- Hungary
- Slovakia
- the Czech Republic
On Monday, the EC decided to transfer additional millions of euros to help member states provide help and care for the refugees coming from Ukraine. The recipients may spend the money on food and transport. The second part of the aid, 100 million euros, will go to the following seven member states:
- Poland
- Slovakia
- the Czech Republic
- Bulgaria
- Estonia
- Latvia and
- Lithuania
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According to index.hu, the EC highlighted the role of local NGOs and regional authorities. They added that they needed to receive money from the financial aid the EU decided about this Monday. The EC cleared they would distribute the support based on how a given country could accommodate and help the refugees, not how much their government spent on that project. Therefore, it is not enough to provide high bills, countries need to provide positive results regarding the Ukrainian refugees.
The remnant 52 million euros from the original 400 million will be spent on emergency needs. For example, creating accommodations and providing psychological help for the refugees, the Hungarian news outlet concluded.
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As we wrote earlier, Hungary badly needs euros to maintain its economy and curb further forint weakening during the energy crisis. That is because Budapest pays for the energy in euros and other foreign currencies. Thus, forint needs to be converted to euros, weakening the Hungarian national currency significantly. Billions of euros are at stake in the infringement and rule-of-law procedures launched against Hungary by the European Commission and European Parliament. They all started because of long-existing allegations claiming that EU money flows away through corruption channels to Fidesz-close oligarchs. The European Commission, for example, has time until this December to decide whether Hungary may access the RRF funds and use those billions to recover its economy and start developments.
Source: index.hu, DNH