The European left now wants to use COVID-funds mitigating the economic damage to exert political pressure

The European Parliament has no competence to approve Member States’ national recovery plans (RRPs). These are submitted by the Member States, and following an assessment and proposal by the European Commission, only the Council is entitled to approve them. The EP is therefore once again overstepping its role when it seeks to evaluate RRPs in addition to exercising its right to information. In doing so, the EP wants to politicize the process, preventing the Commission from carrying out its work impartially and professionally. The intention of the European left is clear: to prevent politically displeasing Member States to start rebuilding their economies from EU funds. This is unacceptable to Fidesz Members of the European Parliament.

MEP Enikő Győri emphasized: “The same thing happened in last year’s debate on rule of law conditionality. At that time, the EP wanted to make the allocation of EU budget resources subject to political conditions. This time, without waiting for all Member States to submit their recovery plans, the European Parliament would demand a say in their evaluation, without any legal basis. Aside from obtaining information, the EP cannot be involved in the process; the fact that MEPs are demanding access to internal Commission documents, which are not yet final, goes beyond both the relevant legislation and Parliament’s powers under the Treaties. It became clear from comments from the European left that again, they simply want to punish certain countries.”

MEP Tamás Deutsch pointed out: “MEPs from the Hungarian opposition parties Jobbik, DK, MSZP and Momentum, continue to undermine the interests of their own country in Brussels, working to decrease EU funds Hungary is receiving. The submission of the Hungarian recovery plan was accompanied by their continuous efforts of sabotage: they wrote a letter of complaint to the President of the European Commission based on false accusations, attacked the Hungarian government’s economic policy with unfounded arguments, incited their own fellow party members within the EP to openly attack the Hungarian recovery plan, and finally, through left-leaning media outlets, they lied that the plan that had not yet been submitted had already been thrown back.”