Important meeting with the EU Commission is scheduled for this Thursday

HUNGARY - In Brief 17 Oct 2023 by Istvan Racz

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The position of the stars once again does not look highly favourable for the Fidesz government on EU matters. A most recent call by four factions of the European Parliament to remove Olivér Várhelyi, the EU's neighbourhood and enlargement commissioner, a Hungarian diplomat and PM Orbán's nominee for the position, for announcing the discontinuation of EU financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority, without doing prior consultations and obtaining proper authorisation last week appears to be one uncomfortable event at a difficult time. But the outcome of the Polish parliamentary election, which appears to be leading to the likely replacement of Fidesz' friends by their fierce opponent in Warsaw may prove highly consequential, in terms of undermining Mr. Orbán's position on the occasion of important EU decisions.  In such circumstances, an upcoming meeting between the government and the EU Commission, to take place in Brussels on October 19, to discuss the release of EU funds for Hungary appears especially important. Hungary's minister Navracsics, one of the two cabinet members to take part in that meeting, signalled optimism regarding the likely outcome, on the basis of which the domestic press is writing about a potential and even likely breakthrough on that occasion, in the direction of the release of the currently blocked EU funds, of course. As this may be reported by the international media and as everything is defined and worded rather vaguely on the subject, it seems important to clarify that the maximum objective for which the government is currently working is to gain access to €13.2bn out of the total €32-33bn in grants and loans, which would be theoretica...