Has Brussels given EU states' development funds to Ukraine?

According to MEP Tamas Deutsch, it should be clarified under what headings and how much money the European Commission has allocated to Ukraine in the first two and a half years of the current EU budget cycle, which began in 2021.

Fidesz MEP Tamas Deutsch told MR1's Sunday morning program that Hungary, Poland and three other member states have not received a single euro cent from the recovery fund, which raises the question of whether the funds for financing the development of member states are not reaching them because Brussels has given them to Ukraine, he said.

It would be worth asking, according to the Hungarian politician, how much money the EU has provided for the supplying of arms and loans to keep the Ukrainian state afloat, and also what other amounts under what specific headings the EU has supplied to the country since the outbreak of the war.

He noted that many people have the impression that the Brussels bureaucracy is using "the well-known methods of Hungarian budget management from the Gyurcsany era [leftist Ferenc Gyurcsany ex-PM of Hungary from 2004-2009]", namely using a plethora of tricks to conceal how much European taxpayers' money has already been given to Ukraine. It is not unreasonable to expect Brussels to send these itemized lists to member states either on a "sheet of paper torn out of a notebook" or in a table with budget headings and entries, he said.

- It is untenable that every week the EC comes up with the idea of sending an additional one, two or three billion euros in aid to Ukraine, but no one has any precise data on the exact amount of money allocated to them, Tamas Deutsch said, adding that the EU budget was adopted by the European Council and the European Parliament in December 2020, when there was no war in Ukraine, so the need for aid arose in the two-year period following that.

He says there are grounds to suspect that the billions given to Ukraine were originally earmarked for other budgetary purposes and came from the authorized or unauthorized reallocation of funding for EU programs. 

The EU politician says that before voting in favour of the €60-70 billion additional payment being demanded from member states under the Brussels proposal, it should be clarified "why the disbursement of EU funds due to member states is happening at such a snail's pace". Poland and Hungary are not getting the EU money they are legally entitled to because of "political blackmail from Brussels bureaucrats", but what is the reason why in three years the Brussels bureaucracy has paid out only 2.5 percent of the seven-year budget for regional development to the EU-27 members?

In the previous seven-year budget period, eight percent of regional development funds went to the member states in the first three years. "At the time, everyone was appalled that never before in the history of the EU, have development funds reached the member states so slowly," Mr Deutsch recalled.

In the current seven-year cycle not only Hungary and Poland have not received a single cent from the recovery fund, as a form of political punishment. Further three member states have also been withdrawn that sum, although they would have received it as a reward. The other 22 EU member states have so far only received less than 20 percent of the funds available until the end of December 2026, he explained. 

The Fidesz party politician put the question whether the funds for financing the member states’ development projects are not reaching those states because the Brussels bureaucracy have given them to Ukraine? Also, behind Brussels’ initiative for the extra payments into the EU’s coffers could be that the development funds have not been received by the 27 EU members but in fact by Ukraine, although the seven-year budget did not give any kind of authorization or order for that.

Tamas Deutsch said that only after the clarification of those questions can we discuss in merit whether there is a need for contributions by the member states, and if so, in what sum.

We, Hungarians, consider any extra burden to the Hungarian budget inconceivable while we haven't seen a dime of the EU development funds we are entitled to.

he said, adding that when Ferenc Gyurcsany’s government used hundreds of tricks to conceal the use of public funds, it led to the leaked admission to it in the infamous ‘Oszod speech,’ which then brought about his government’s political downfall. If the European Commission also used tricks, then it should be followed by a similar admission of those tricks by Brussels, and it should entail serious political consequences, he stated.

Cover photo: The flags of the EU countries in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, northeastern France, on 23 November 2022 (Photo: MTI/EPA/Julien Warnand)