The EU Commission is set to come forward with its proposal on the Hungarian rule-of-law procedure tomorrow

HUNGARY - In Brief 29 Nov 2022 by Istvan Racz

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The widespread current expectation is that the Commission will propose to freeze Hungary's access to 65% of its transfer (= development grant) quotas under three major cohesion policy programs of the EU's common budget for 2021-2027, in a total value of €7.5bn. This would be the same proposal as the one made by the Commission back in September. However, the Commission has put forward Hungary's RRF utilisation plan, affecting €5.8bn of grants from the EU's Recovery Fund, to Ecofin (the ministerial level of the EU Council) for endorsement, which may take place on December 12. Media reports on the subject remain grossly misleading, just as they have always been in our view, because: - they very typically claim that the rule-of-law procedure will likely be maintained because the Commission is unhappy about the way how the Hungarian government has implemented its promised anti-corruption measures (a 17-point list of related commitments); and- they normally remain silent on the Commission's approval of the RRF utilisation plan just a few days ago. In reality, the Commission is indeed unhappy about certain aspects of Hungary's implementation of its promises, according to rumours spread in the media, but it never was part of its (the Commission's) original proposal that the rule-of-law procedure would be closed down and Hungary would be acquitted if the 17-point list of legal amendments is properly implemented by November 19 (the deadline set for the government). Quite the contrary.  On the Commission's dissatisfaction: fresh media reports claim that the 17-point list has been extended by the Commission to a total 27 points in recent days, as the Commission attached new demand...