Brussels wants to suspend aid to Hungary for constantly violating the principles of the rule of law

The European Comission (EC) has proposed this Sunday lay off the disbursement of european funds a Hungary for its continuous violations of the principles of the rule of law, especially in matters of fight against corruption Y fraud in the procedures of public procurement.

The Community Executive is in favor of “suspending the disbursement of 65% of the commitments of three operational programs of the cohesion policy for an estimated amount of 7,500 million euros, which represents more than a third of Hungary’s cohesion allocation” , the European Commissioner for Budgets, Johannes Hahn, reported at a press conference.

Brussels has decided to take this step while waiting for the Government of Viktor Orban implement the promised reforms to resolve the deficiencies detected by the community authorities and which led to the activation of the file.

The case began in April with the notice to Hungary

Hahn recalled that this case began when the EC notified Budapest in April of its concern about violations of the principles of the rule of law, in the context that they could pose a risk to the proper use of the community budget.

He specifically referred to systematic irregularities and deficiencies in public procurement, insufficiencies in the treatment of conflicts of interest in the public sphere, deficiencies in the effective follow-up of investigations and judicial proceedings in cases related to funds and deficiencies in the fight against corruption.

In July, the Commission informed Hungary that it would propose measures to the rest of the EU countries to protect the community budgetunless it developed adequate corrective measures to solve the problem, and from then on Budapest committed itself to adopting 17 initiatives.

The freezing of funds has to be now approved within one month by the other Member States by qualified majority, which means that Poland – Hungary’s great partner in these matters – does not have the power of veto.

However, andThis period can be extended by another two monthswhich means that Budapest has until December 21 to implement the reforms promised to the community authorities and put a stop to the process so that the freezing of funds is not effective.