On Wednesday 7 July, the European Commissioner for Values, Věra Jourová, denied allegations in the German press that the European Commission had suspended its assessment of the Hungarian recovery plan in order to put pressure on Viktor Orbán’s government until the Hungarian law stigmatising LGBTI people is withdrawn.
“I can not confirm at this moment that this has happened. The German press was not right”, said Mrs Jourová in Strasbourg during a debate in the European Parliament’s plenary session on respect for fundamental rights and the Rule of law in Hungary (see other news).
Speaking to the press in Brussels, a European Commission spokeswoman on economic issues, Marta Wieczorek, said the EU institution was continuing to assess the Hungarian recovery plan on the basis of the eleven criteria laid down in EU law. “There is no suspension”, she said.
The European Commission has until Monday 12 July to present its assessment of the €7.2 billion recovery plan, which Hungary presented on 12 May (see EUROPE 12719/12). Budapest did not ask for an extension of its plan, unlike Poland (until the beginning of August) and Estonia, Romania and Sweden (all three countries until the end of September).
Earlier in the day, the European Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Paolo Gentiloni, recalled that each recovery plan must incorporate a substantial part of the socio-economic policy recommendations that the European level addressed to each Member State in 2019.
According to him, the European Commission wants to ensure that the use of European aid by Budapest does not violate the protection of the EU’s financial interests. He cited the importance of a robust control and audit mechanism for the use of EU funds being in place in Hungary, of the absence of discrimination between final beneficiaries, and of addressing a number of issues related to the respect of the Rule of law (e.g. access to information by the public, independence of the judiciary, supervision of public procurement).
“It is about working on the aspects concerning the respect of the Rule of law in the framework of the European Recovery Plan. I assure you that the Commission will use these means”, stressed Mr Gentiloni.
The President of the European institution, Ursula von der Leyen, made the same statement to the European Parliament: “In the national recovery plans, we include a strong system of controls, of milestones to monitor where the money goes. We will look at good governance and anti-corruption measures as well as the fight against fraud”. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with Agathe Cherki)