Hungary’s amendments to its law on public interest funds are not sufficient to resolve the risks of conflicts of interest, declared the European Commission on Monday 16 December.
As a result, the Commission has decided to maintain the freeze on access to funds for Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe programmes, which was implemented in December 2022.
On Monday 2 December, Hungary notified the Commission that it had amended a law to prevent senior political decision-makers from sitting on universities’ governing boards (see EUROPE 13537/20). Around twenty Hungarian universities had been excluded from the funds because of the participation of individuals linked to the Orbán government on their governing boards.
The Commission felt that it had sufficiently defined the adjustments required to remedy the situation. On 16 December, it reiterated that Hungary could put an end to this situation at any time by adopting the necessary measures.
Other violations of Rule of law principles resulted in EU measures to suspend part of Hungary’s cohesion funds. These remain in force, insofar as Hungary has not presented a solution to the Commission.
Furthermore, as of early December, Hungary had not paid the €200 million fine imposed by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) because the right to asylum has been made virtually impossible in the country (see EUROPE 13474/13). Hungary must also pay a penalty of €1 million per day since the CJEU judgment’s publication on Thursday 13 June, until it complies with EU rules. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)