Standstill in RRF funding between Hungary and the EU

In concrete terms, Hungary’s barriers towards unlocking RRF payments are two-fold. First, like all other member states, it must deliver the infrastructural and other development investments set in the goals proposed by the Hungarian government and accepted through EU institutional legislative mechanisms. Secondly, the Hungarian government, in its attempt to settle the long overdue EU rule of law breach disputes, has come up with a set of 27 reform goals. The Hungarian government, in the related talks with the EU bodies, agreed to deliver on both strains to allow the EU mechanisms to unlock the payment of RRF funds and loans. However, since the Council adopted the amended Hungarian recovery and resilience plan (RRP) based on the Commission’s positive evaluation in December 2022, not much has moved forward in Hungary. According to several sources asking for anonymity closely following the issue, since then, the Hungarian government visibly gave up on realizing the infrastructural goals set in the plans and making the legal amendments necessary to fulfill the rule of law super milestones. As the main reason for the inaction, most of our sources cite the core issue of corruption, lack of transparency, and that the needed rule of law changes would majorly weaken the kleptocracy of the Orbán regime.

For this very reason, the only reported fulfilled payments to the Hungarian beneficiaries reported in the Hungarian government’s report are prepayments that were not entitled to the same rules as the rest of the payments are.

According to the latest EP BUDG-ECON committee report on the RRF fund “despite some exceptions, absorption rates of RRF funds remain quite scattered ranging from the highs of France (76.6%), Germany (65.2%) and Italy (62.8%) to the lows of the Netherlands (24.5%), Bulgaria (24.1%) and Luxembourg (13.4%). Additionally, Hungary has only received the pre-financing leaving absorption rate at a mere 8.8% given the ongoing standstill on the completion of rule-of-law super milestones needed to unlock future instalments”.

Therefore, until today, the disbursed envelope for Hungary sums 919,593,786 EURs, which is 8.84% of the total 10,400,000,000 allocated to the country from the RRF funds. It’s noteworthy, though, that Hungary has not yet submitted a payment request that would prompt the evaluation of the fulfillment of the milestones and targets.

Answering to EUrologus/HVG, Damian Boeselager, a Dutch Green MEP, member of the EP’s budgetary control committee, said that in his expectations, the Hungarian RRF funds destiny will unfold as follows: „The Hungarian government is depriving Hungarian citizens of the Corona recovery funds. If the government re-instated an independent justice system, seriously tackled corruption, and honoured the rule of law, these funds would flow. Sadly, I don’t see any signs that the government wants to reverse the more and more autocratic direction it has chosen. A shame for Hungarians and anyone supporting democracy.

Asking Boeselager to comment on how much Hungary is lagging relative to other member states the MEP commented that “the implementation differs per country, and it’s natural that most disbursements happen within the second half of the RRF programme. However, there are some member states with serious delays – an issue currently under discussion in the budget committee of the European Parliament.”

In a Hungarian political context, the RRF fund freeze does not seem to be unlocked before the 2026 April parliamentary elections, in which first time since being in power Orbán will face a single strong opposition party. Led by ex-Fidesz associate turned European Peoples Party MEP Péter Magyar, called Tisza party. EUrologus asked the Tisza party’s member of the EP BUDG-ECON committee Kinga Kollár how she sees the fate of the Hungarian RRF payments. 

“Out of 27 member countries, 26 have managed to meet the conditions, with Hungary being the only country that has not yet implemented the measures, most of which were designed to eradicate corruption. The problem is rooted in the fact that the Orbán regime is characterised by corruption at the highest level. They would rather give up more than EUR 10 billion in resources than stop legalised theft. The Hungarian people are suffering the consequences many times over. It’s important to note that the conditions have mostly been reflected in the country reports for years, so they are not just asking for something out of thin air. There are systemic risks of EU taxpayers’ money being stolen in Hungary and this is unsustainable. In 10-15 years, we have reached the point where it is not only us Hungarians who are outraged by Orbán’s mafia methods, but also EU countries, including German and Dutch taxpayers, who have had enough. Let’s face it, this is understandable, few people would like to increase the wealth of the Orbán dynasty and the Tiborcz’s voluntarily.”

Therefore, Kollár “unfortunately sees little chance that the government will change its attitude, so if it is up to them, these resources will be lost for good. Nevertheless, I encourage the Hungarian government to take action against corruption and to launch the payment requests.”

Original source: https://hvg.hu/360/20250318_unios-forrasok_helyreallitasi-alap_jogallamisag_europai-parlament