“EU funds are supposed to be used to mitigate the impact of the pandemic in Hungary, and support the green and digital transition – but Orban seems to have other ideas,” our Zsuzsa Szelenyi writes in her op-ed in The Independent.
She writes about the meeting of Ursula von der Leyen and Viktor Orban, stating that “money has become a neuralgic point between the EU and the Hungarian prime minister”.
“Orban is keeping the Commission under pressure by delaying the Hungarian parliament from approving the new financing mechanism for the Fund. This is a deliberate tactic – under Fidesz’s supermajority, such approval could be made at a time of Orban’s choosing. Orban wants to maintain his leverage until his financial plan is accepted in Brussels,” she adds, concluding that “the EU can’t afford to finance the repeated victory of a political party openly undermining its foundations.”
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