Hungary is a winner of the recovery package for multiple reasons, chances are high for the success of the economic recovery action plan

The European Parliament has debated and voted on the resources related to the EU recovery package adopted last December. Within the framework of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, a total of EUR 672.5 billion will be made available to Member States to tackle the impacts of the crisis following the coronavirus pandemic, out of which Hungary will receive nearly HUF 6 trillion.

At the plenary debate, Fidesz MEP Enikő Győri, member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs stressed: “I firmly believe that Europe and my home country, Hungary are winners, now that after more than half a year of hard battles, the means to recovery has been created. We are winners because the Polish and Hungarian governments resisted the incredibly strong pressure used against them; thus, blackmail did not become part of the EU toolbox. The rule of law is more important to us than letting it be abused by some. We are winners because the EU has shown that it can learn from its mistakes in dealing with the previous crisis. There is no growth via austerity and making life impossible for workers, SMEs and families. For eleven years, we Hungarians, as devotees of a work-based economy and diverse family benefits, have been focusing on job creation, which can be achieved through investment and structural reforms. We are winners because this facility is a chance for Europe to be competitive again. Hungary is a partner in ensuring that Europe is finally on a sustainable path in terms of both the economy and the environment and that it also appears on the digital stage. If we miss this opportunity now, our grandchildren will only know Europe’s ubiquitous welfare lifestyle by way of stories. It is our common responsibility that resources are spent efficiently and accounted for down to the last penny”.

MEP Tamás Deutsch, member of the Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Regional Development, emphasized that last December Hungary had historic success in the negotiations for the seven-year EU budget and the related recovery fund. Thanks to the agreement reached at the European Council Summit and the decision of the European Parliament approving the framework budget, we protected Hungarians’ share of the European Union’s financial resources. The agreement also confirmed that no political condition could be imposed on Hungarians for the disbursement and use of funding due under the EU treaties.

Unfortunately, the Hungarian Left was mobilizing all of its energies to harm Hungary. They worked to take away and reduce subsidies in order to gain political advantage for themselves at the expense of Hungary in front of the 2022 parliamentary elections.

MEP Deutsch, Head of the Fidesz-KDNP delegation to the EP, added that the Hungarian Left wanted to constantly harm Hungarian people for its own power goals. First, left-liberal MEPs wanted the budget and recovery fund resources due to Hungary to instead be placed in the pocket of Brussels. In essence, this would have meant that they would have taken the money away from the Hungarian people as Hungary can use 100 percent of the money in the so-called national pocket but can access only a fraction of resources in the common one. Then, the left-liberal mayors of V4 capitals, including Gergely Karácsony, lobbied unsuccessfully to label some of the development funds based on political grounds, meaning they would be received directly by opposition towns. This falied attempt would have adversely affected the vast majority of Hungarians.

Regarding the fact that the national authorities must involve regional and local bodies in the planning and implementation of approved development projects, MEP Deutsch highlighted that the use of the recovery fund will have to be agreed upon with local governments in the same way as in the case of the budget. The Hungarian Government has fulfilled this obligation to the maximum since 2010, but under left-wing governments, when Klára Dobrev was Vice-President of the National Development Agency, for example, there was no consultation with local governments on the preparation of the so-called national development plan.

MEP Tamás Deutsch underlined that despite all such left-wing attempts to hinder their own country, there is good hope that Hungary will be among the Member States whose tender opportunities open up the fastest.