The fight against corruption, auditing and education are still the sticking points in the ongoing negotiations between the Hungarian authorities and the European Commission on the Hungarian recovery plan under the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan.
“Progress has been made” in the ongoing discussions, “but a number of issues remain open, including anti-corruption, auditing and control, and education”, said the European Commission spokeswoman, Veerle Nuyts, on Monday 18 July.
She confirmed that Hungary would lose 70% of its recovery plan grant allocation if the EU Council fails to adopt the plan by the end of the year. At the end of June, the Commission reduced the grant allocation for the Hungarian plan from €7.2 billion to €5.8 billion - in line with the regulation establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the budgetary instrument of Next Generation EU (see EUROPE 12983/11). This revision forces the Hungarian authorities to rework their recovery plan, Ms Nuyts confirmed.
Only the Hungarian and Dutch plans (see EUROPE 12989/4), recently transmitted to the European level, have yet to be endorsed by the EU institutions, as the other 25 national plans are already being implemented. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)