The EU is intervening in member states’ budgets, Hungarian finance minister says

The Hungarian government rejects the European Commission’s “even stronger interference” in member states’ budgets, Mihály Varga, the finance minister, said before the meeting of the Council of Finance Ministers (Ecofin) in Luxembourg on Friday, adding that the EC’s firmer hand would introduce “yet another double standard”.

Meanwhile, on the subject of country-specific recommendations to be presented later today, Varga told Hungarian journalists that Hungary had met its commitments to the EU for funds to be unblocked, but the European Commission was unearthing more and more objections so as to avoid paying the money rightfully owed to Hungary.

He said Hungary had undertaken its commitments but the EU was not reciprocating, so “we won’t support the adoption of the document at the meeting”.