Ruminations 10 days after the EU Summit
July 31st, 2020Ten days after the next seven-year budget and the coronavirus recovery fund were adopted by heads of state and government, commentators still struggle to make sense of what exactly the decisions taken in Brussels mean for Hungary.
In 168 óra, János Kárpáti acknowledges that the disbursement of EU payments to member countries will not be conditional on rule-of-law compliance. Nevertheless, he is convinced that stricter control will be exercised over how member countries spend those funds, and those found guilty of corrupt practices, he hopes, will not find enough supporters within the European Council to avoid being sanctioned.
In Magyar Hírlap, Ervin Nagy criticises the 7-year budget for allotting over 800 million Euros to NGOs. The NGOs supported by the European Commission, he writes, are mostly left-liberal minded and promote so-called progressive agendas. Nagy therefore concludes that financially supporting them amounts to financing political parties which in theory is against EU rules. He urges the European Union either to cease such direct subsidies or support conservative NGOs in equal measure.