We are protecting Hungary’s EU funds!

At today’s plenary session of the European Parliament, the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union presented the Member States’ 2024 EU budget proposals. The Fidesz delegation in the European Parliament stressed that guarantees should be included in the European budget to ensure that funds earmarked for Hungary are not spent for the benefit of other objectives or countries.

The EU budget for 2024 will largely depend on the outcome of the negotiations on the revision of the seven-year framework budget and on Member States’ willingness to pay again. The European Commission is asking for an extra EUR 75 billion, while it cannot give a satisfactory account of the money paid to Ukraine, the delays in payments from the recovery fund, and the rising interest costs of common borrowing, or regarding the plans for pay rises for the Brussels bureaucracy.

According to the Fidesz delegation in the European Parliament, it must be guaranteed that the funds earmarked for Hungary – be it Erasmus, research and development programmes, or Hungarian cohesion funds – cannot be reallocated and spent in favour of other objectives or countries.

Fidesz MEPs also consider it important that the loud political promises of recent weeks on EU enlargement are accompanied by an increase in pre-accession funds in 2024. An increase could signal the EU’s determination, and failure to do so would send the wrong message to candidate countries about the EU’s credibility.