“We will fulfill what we promised”

“Negotiations with the European Commission on the conditionality mechanism are continuing in order,” Tibor Navracsics, Minister for Regional Development, told Magyar Nemzet. He believes that though political aspects will influence decisions regarding the EU funds due to Hungary, they will not overwrite them. The Minister also discussed the details of Veszprém becoming the cultural capital of Europe next year.

“Though political aspects can influence the decisions regarding the conditionality procedure, they will not overwrite them,” underlined the Minister for Regional Development optimistically after recent negotiations with European Commissioner for Budget and Administration Johannes Hahn. As is known, the European Commission officially launched the rule of law (conditionality) mechanism against Hungary on April 27th. In connection with this, Hungary and Brussels have been negotiating for the past several months.

We are interested in excluding political, party factors from the negotiations and not addressing certain commissioner’s terrorizations,

– highlighted the Minister. He added that they requested the Commission pin down exact points to base their commitments on.

Continuous negotiations

The last announcement from the Minister was a week ago: the Hungarian government made 17 commitments to the European Commission, bringing a close to the intensive and constructive months-long process. Tibor Navracsics told our paper that everything in connection with our commitments is progressing according to plan and last week he traveled to Brussels because the Commission had prepared the decision proposal regarding the Hungarian commitments. “After this, Johannes Hahn and I sat down and agreed on the plan going forward,” added the Minister. He highlighted that during their talks they clarified that all plans are in order and the prepared materials. He said that,

The integrity authority will start operating before November 19. Among the 17 commitments, one is the most important: the authority will examine the public procurement of funds connected to EU sources and may intervene if it detects any irregularities or abuses of these funds. Tibor Navracsis emphasized thatby November 19th, the Commission may withdraw the funds suspension or send the case to the Council.

In regard to the conditionality procedure, the European Commission actually has no right to impose sanctions against Member States, it can only make proposals to the European Council. “I believe we have made meaningful strides. By concluding the negotiations and not encountering any bigger problems, the Commission cannot demand more commitments,” said the Minister.

Available funds

Several news stories have appeared lately about the percentage of EU funds due to Hungary affected by the suspensions. The Minister explained that 65 percent of the commitments made in the three operational programs of the seven-year budget framework are impacted; it is simply not true that these would apply to all EU funds for Hungary. The amount of funds denoted in the proposal is merely about 15 percent of the EU funds due to Hungary.

Tibor Navracsics emphasized that they are not dealing with the proposed resolution because they are absolutely sure that the Hungarian government will fulfill what it has undertaken and we will receive funds.

“One of several guarantees for this is that we started discussing the legislation related to the conditionality procedure in parliament this past Monday,” said Tibor Navracsics. The Minister also emphasized that the funds due to Hungary are currently available as they were pre-financed by the Hungarian budget. “We will replace these with EU funds because we expect that as soon as we sign the agreements, disbursement will begin and everything else just depends on Brussels’ administrative mechanisms,” he stated.

Culture capital of Europe

Next year, Europe will also be paying attention to us in a different way: in 2023, Veszprém will be Europe’s cultural capital. Tibor Navracsics, who is the parliamentary representative there, is tied to the region in several ways. He told us that he strives to spend at least one day a week there though, as he said, his role is much smaller there now. His task was to establish the legal and financial conditions for Veszprém to win the title, but he does not participate in current affairs; he only provides support in the background. In answer to our question on governance, he responded that he has been a member of the government or working for the European Commission since 2010, so he is closely aligned. “True, as a minister the stakes are much higher and I expect many challenges in this respect,” added Tibor Navracsics.

Photo: Tibor Navracsics