The European Commission’s decision on Monday 16 December not to grant Hungary access to funds from the Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe programmes (see EUROPE 13546/16), amounts to “discrimination against Hungarian entities and individuals”, said János Bóka, the Hungarian Minister for European Affairs, on Tuesday 17 December.
According to Mr Bóka, “the conditions set by the European Commission [for unfreezing these funds] go well beyond the decision of the Council” of the European Union. He criticised the Commission for using the ‘rule of law conditionality’ mechanism as a “tool for political pressure”.
The day before, the Commission had judged that the amendments made by Hungary to its law on public interest funds were not sufficient to resolve the risks of conflicts of interest.
Hungary is already planning to “use all the political and legal tools at its disposal to remedy this discrimination”. However, János Bóka said that discussions with the European Commission would continue “in a constructive spirit”.
The subject was not discussed at the General Affairs Council on Tuesday. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)