The Hungarian government has submitted a EUR 238 million bill to Brussels

The European Union’s current migration-related proposals run counter to the interests of Europe, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office told a press briefing on Thursday, arguing that such policies would boost immigration and result in the emergence of “migrant ghettos”.

At the same time, Gergely Gulyás said it was welcome that the European Parliament had listened to the objections of the Visegrad Group countries, Germany and the Netherlands to ramming through the proposals. Discussions, he added, would continue in September.

He underlined Hungary’s objection to any kind of migrant redistribution mechanism and quotas. Current proposals would undermine Europe’s interests, he said, arguing that they failed to contain any guarantees against effective border protection and carried the risk of asylum procedures still being executed within the bloc’s borders.

Migration pressure in Europe would mount significantly if the proposals were approved, Gulyás said, noting that the number of people seeking to enter Europe would already reach a record high this year.

Hungary has spent 650 billion forints (EUR 1.7bn) on border protection so far and has requested compensation from Brussels, Gulyás said. The EU has covered less than 1 percent of those costs, but Hungary has asked it to cover at least 50 percent, he added.

If the EU wants effective border protection and a well-functioning passport-free Schengen area, then the European Commission should compensate member states for their border protection costs or make significant contributions to them, he said.

Meanwhile, Gulyás said Hungary had fulfilled the so-called enabling condition, the “milestone” related to the judiciary defined by the EC, adding that there could be no more obstacles to Hungary receiving funding from the EU’s seven-year budget.

Hungary has sent invoices for EUR  238 million in European Union funding for the 2021-2027 financial cycle to Brussels, of which the EU must pay 85 percent, or EUR 202 million, Gulyás said.

The EC has 90 days to confirm Hungary’s implementation of the enabling condition and 60 days to process the invoices and transfer the funds, he said.

Most of the invoices are for advance payments from the Economic Development and Innovation Operative Programme Plus (GINOP) to fund small and medium-sized businesses, Gulyás said.

Once Hungary receives the necessary funding from Brussels, teachers will be given a pay rise, he said, adding that the EC “owed” Hungarian teachers HUF 800 billion.

Commenting on the state of the economy, Gulyás said the extremely difficult situation resulting from the Russia-Ukraine war, further worsened by European sanctions, appeared to be somewhat improving. The economic outlook is improving and economic growth will accelerate in the second half of the year, he added.

Gulyás called “realistic” the growth target of 1.5 percent GDP contained in the 2023 budget — “or at least 1 percent” — while 4 percent growth next year was “viable”.

He said inflation was expected to decrease rapidly, and “if everything goes well, inflation will be in the single digits by as early as October, while every month from now on there will be 2, 3 or 4 percentage point drops.”

Gulyás said the government had done much to shield households from the harmful effects of inflation, including the price caps on certain food products and the mandatory discounts supermarkets must offer regularly on a number of food products, which will be increased from 10 percent to 15 percent from August 1. He added that SZÉP voucher card balances could be used for purchases in supermarkets from next month, and the balances could be topped up by 200,000 forints.

Gulyás said the government’s top priority was to tackle inflation, “but not everyone is involved in this struggle”. The authorities have imposed fines totalling 3.1 billion forints on entities trying to profit off inflation, he said.

He said an inflation rate of 6 percent or possibly as low as 5 percent was realistic for next year.

As regards the war in Ukraine, Gulyás said Hungary continued to urge a ceasefire and peace talks, arguing that this was the only way to “end the killing”.

The most conservative estimates indicate that more than 310,000 people have died in the war, he said, adding that some estimates even put this figure at 700,000-800,000. Close to 10,000 of those were, he said, civilian casualties and a least 16,500 civilians had been wounded in the conflict, he said.

He said Russian reserves and losses had been significantly greater, and the Ukrainian counteroffensive had yet to achieve meaningful results, he said. Gulyás added that it was very hard for either side to break through the other’s defences.

Gulyás said all this demonstrated that the Hungarian government had been justified in calling for an urgent ceasefire and peace talks.

Source: MTI