EU Approves Hungary's Post-pandemic Recovery Plan

Hungary's post-pandemic recovery plan was approved by the European Commission on Wednesday, but money won't be released until all prerequisites have been met by Budapest, according to the Anadolu Agency.

According to a press release from the commission, "the Commission will authorise disbursements of grants totaling €5.8 billion ($6 billion) based on the satisfactory fulfilment of all the milestones and targets specified in the recovery and resilience plan, reflecting progress on the implementation of the investments and reforms."

Additionally, as part of the EU's cohesion policy, it requested that the governments of the EU freeze the €7.5 billion that Hungary would typically receive from the EU budget.

"... no payment under the RRF (Recovery and Resilience Facility) is possible until Hungary has fully and correctly implemented these 27 'super milestones'," the Commission said.

"The rule of law, including independent justice and effective anti-corruption systems, are key elements of a democratic EU," said Vera Jourova, the European commissioner for values ​​and European transparency.

"We recommend to the Council to continue the budget conditionality mechanism as the commitments, which the Hungarian government proposed and agreed to, have not been met. At the same time we are proposing to the Council to endorse the Hungarian Recovery Plan because it includes strong judicial milestones," Jourova added.