Several civil society organisations, including Transparency International, Open Society European Policy Institute and Access Info Europe, are calling on the European Commission to not adopt the Hungarian recovery plan as part of the European Next Generation EU Plan until stronger guarantees have been put in place regarding the monitoring of budgetary expenditure.
In particular, these organisations are demanding that Hungary: - participates in the EU’s Arachne database of budgetary surveillance to prevent fraud; - makes information public on the final beneficiaries of the Recovery Plan; - strengthens its legislation on public procurement; - improves access to public administration data.
Hungary “has spent successive years leading OLAF’s list of Member States where the most irregularities involving EU funds have been found “, emphasised the organisations in a letter sent to the European Commission on Wednesday 29 September, on the eve of the deadline for negotiations with Budapest over the EU Recovery Plan. They added: “The Hungarian government’s refusal to join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office further limits the effective investigation and prosecution of fraud and corruption cases in the country”.
According to our information, the Hungarian authorities are refusing to join the Arachne database, arguing that not all Member States are obliged to join.
See the letter from the NGOs: https://bit.ly/3CRlDJy (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)