By Gabriela Baczynska
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Hungary must beef up the independence of its judiciary “very soon” to have a realistic chance of getting any share of the 15.4 billion euros earmarked for Budapest from the European Union’s Covid recovery stimulus, he said. a senior EU official.
Hungary stands to receive around 5.8 billion euros in free grants and another 9.6 billion euros in cheap loans from the EU, but the bloc has suspended any payments until Budapest implements reforms to improve judicial independence and fight corruption.
“They will have to adopt laws, which will strengthen the position of judges, which will strengthen actions against corruption,” said Věra Jourová, deputy head of the European Commission, after a Hungarian delegation held talks at the EU’s executive headquarters in Brussels this week. .
Jourová, responsible for maintaining democratic standards in the 27-nation union, added that improving public procurement in Hungary is another requirement.
“These are very concrete things, which the Hungarian government has promised to fix or install very soon … time works against them,” she said in comments released for publication on Friday.
Hungary and Poland are the only EU member states that are lagging behind in securing the funds, amid long-standing criticism from the Commission that their nationalist and populist governments are undermining democracy and the rule of law.
European taxpayers “don’t want their money to go to places where there is no respect for the rule of law, where life is very difficult for LGBT+ people or other minorities,” Jourová said.
(Additional reporting by Krisztina Than)