Hungary has been officially denied some $1 billion dollars in European Union funding that the bloc had frozen because of corruption allegations.
The move, confirmed in an EU statement late on December 31, was the first time that it had taken such a step against a bloc member.
Budapest made no immediate statement about the expired funds.
That amount was part of a larger sum – 19 billion euros ($19.7 billion) – that had been frozen, dating back to 2022, when Brussels began “conditionality” proceedings against Hungary.
Those proceedings blocked the disbursements of funds because of allegations that the Hungarian government had violated rules on public procurement as well as a lack of control and transparency.
Budapest made a number of reforms that allowed some funds to be unblocked, but the deadline for the release of the latest installment expired on December 31.
That meant that Hungary lost the funding, which amounted to 1.04 billion euros ($1.08 billion).
In a report released in July, the European Commission said that Hungary did not meet EU democratic standards, specifically regarding political financing, conflicts of interest, and media independence.
https://www.dw.com/en/eu-denies-hungary-a-billion-euros-after-reform-failures/a-71196557
If I understood the article correctly the now still frozen 19 billion were part of an even bigger package where its payment required hungary to fight corruption (last on the corruption-index in the EU with 42 of 100 points and below global average). Orban vowed to do something and got money from the previously bigger funds. It seems he failed to really fullfill the requirements (as promised) and therefore the first billion of the rest of the funding was nullified and therefore is lost. I suppose the remaining frozen funding is still bound to anti-corruption-measurements.
I hope this really is a win for the EU but I read somewhere else that the 1 billion was initially declared for infrastructure measurements in poorer regions (questionable how much would’ve actually ended there) and Orban now took a loan about 1 bln from China where the latter is investing into hungary by building factories for their BYD electric cars there.