In December 2022,
representatives of Member States in the Council of the European Union and the
European Commission suspended and tied to conditions Hungary’s access to EU
funds under various procedures due to severe breaches of the rule of law and
human rights.
●
In the
course of the conditionality mechanism, aimed at protecting the EU budget,
Hungary has committed to adopt 17 anti-corruption measures. However, in
December, the Council found that the remedial measures adopted up to that point
had significant weaknesses, and therefore decided to suspend 55% of the budgetary
commitments under three operational programmes with regard to Hungary,
amounting to approximately €6.3 billion.
●
When
approving the country’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), the Council defined
numerous milestones with a rule of law connection, including 27 “super
milestones” that Hungary has to fully and correctly fulfil before it can
receive any payment under the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility – €5.8
billion in total. A significant part of the milestones coincide with the
measures required under the conditionality mechanism, while four super
milestones are aimed at restoring the independence of the judiciary.
●
Finally,
the Commission found in relation to 10 operational programmes that Hungary
fails to comply with the so-called horizontal enabling condition “effective
application and implementation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights” (1) due to
deficiencies around judicial independence (as also raised under the RRP), and
so Hungary cannot access the respective EU funds until these are addressed.
Under certain operational programmes, it is also set out as an obstacle to
accessing funds that (2) the operation of public interest asset management
foundations, many of them maintaining universities, (3) various elements of the
Hungarian asylum system and (4) the Hungarian anti-LGBTQI+ law adopted in 2021
also violate the Charter.
Amnesty
International Hungary, the Eötvös Károly Institute, the Hungarian Civil
Liberties Union, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, K-Monitor and Transparency
International Hungary assessed in detail the steps the Hungarian government has
taken to address the deficiencies above.
The conclusion of
our assessment is that, up until 31 March 2023, the Hungarian government had
not taken adequate steps in order to fully address the rule of law and human
rights concerns raised, and so it had not complied with most of the conditions
established by EU institutions to access EU funds.
●
Out of the
27 super milestones, 13 have
been achieved, 7 have been achieved only
partly, and 7 have not been achieved.
●
Out of the
20 “ordinary” milestones and targets that were due by the end of the first
quarter of 2023 the latest, 8
have been achieved, 9 have been achieved only
partly, and 3 have not been achieved.
●
Out of the
4 areas of concern identified in relation to the operational programmes and the
Charter of Fundamental Rights, none have been addressed.
Thus, to date,
numerous issues related to the anti-corruption framework, competition in public
procurement, judicial independence, the predictability, quality and
transparency of law-making, the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers, academic
freedom and the rights of LGBTQI+ persons remain unresolved, and remedial
measures taken so far remain unsatisfactory.
Swift measures are
necessary in all of these areas to ensure that the country and its citizens are
granted access to EU funds. This is not the end of the road though, and the Hungarian government still
has a chance to comply with the conditions and show that it respects the values
the EU is founded upon. The Hungarian civil
society will continue to monitor its progress.
The full assessment of the Hungarian civil society
organisations is available
here.
A summary table of the assessment is available
here.
