Hungary Races To Meet EU Funding Deadline As Danube Returns To Life

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief reporting from Budapest, Hungary

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (Worthy News) – Hungary’s new government of Prime Minister Péter Magyar was racing Sunday to complete rule-of-law and anti-corruption reforms ahead of a crucial Monday deadline that could unlock 10 billion euros ($11.7 billion) in European Union recovery funding blocked during the Viktor Orbán era.

The August 31 deadline provides an early test of Magyar’s pledge to repair Budapest’s strained relationship with Brussels and restore access to billions of euros in European funding after his landslide election victory ended Orbán’s 16 years in power.

Hungary must complete reforms and investments under its revised Recovery and Resilience Plan by Monday to remain eligible for the funding, comprising about 6.5 billion euros in grants and 3.5 billion euros in preferential loans.

The government is seeking to satisfy 27 so-called “super milestones” established by the European Commission, the European Union’s executive. They include 21 related to fighting corruption and improving transparency, four concerning judicial independence and two involving audits of EU spending.

BILLIONS AT STAKE

“We are making good progress in meeting the milestones related to recovery funds: we have already fulfilled two-thirds of our commitments, and the settlement of the remaining cases is in its final stage,” said a spokesperson for Hungary’s Ministry of Transport and Investment, which oversees EU funds.

The ministry added that it considered fulfillment of all the remaining milestones realistic, stressing that the government wanted to “bring home every euro cent due to Hungary.”

Magyar hopes the measures will help end years of tensions between Budapest and Brussels over corruption, judicial independence, public procurement and other rule-of-law concerns that marked the government of former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

His cabinet has moved to strengthen anti-corruption safeguards and judicial independence while pursuing Hungary’s accession to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which investigates crimes involving EU money.

EU FUNDING DECISION

EU finance ministers approved Hungary’s revised recovery plan in July, but payments remain conditional on the European Commission determining that Budapest has satisfactorily completed the required milestones and targets.

The deadline follows a political agreement reached earlier this year between Magyar and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen aimed at restoring Hungary’s access to European funding after years of confrontation under Orbán.

Magyar has made recovering the money a central promise of his new government, arguing that Hungary lost access to billions of euros largely because of corruption and rule-of-law problems under his predecessor.

Yet as officials in Budapest raced to satisfy Brussels, the rising Danube was providing some welcome relief elsewhere in Hungary.

DANUBE BRINGS RELIEF

The country’s only nuclear power station, at Paks south of Budapest, returned to full capacity last week after record-low water levels in the Danube had brought the plant close to its first complete shutdown in more than four decades.

All four reactors and eight turbines were operating again after weeks of severely reduced production, Magyar said, with the plant reaching its maximum output of about 2,000 megawatts.

The Paks facility, which produces nearly half of Hungary’s electricity, relies on the Danube for cooling and fell to a fraction of normal production during the summer drought.

Rising river levels and emergency engineering measures near the plant helped restore operations. Authorities constructed an underwater barrier to raise the Danube around the cooling-water intake after extraordinarily low levels threatened electricity supplies.

SWIMMERS TAKE TO DANUBE

The recovering river was also attracting attention for a rather different reason this weekend as nearly 1,000 people plunged into the Danube in central Budapest for the first organized crossing of its kind in six years.

Authorities closed one of the normally busy stretches of the river to shipping for four hours Saturday as participants swam between Corvinus University and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

Nearly 40 paramedics and 12 motorboats watched over the swimmers during the Generali OWT Danube Crossing, organizers said. One British participant living in Budapest described the swim as “a fantastic experience,” adding: “Every Budapest resident should try it once.”

Organizers said the water was clean and the route safe, despite longstanding concerns among some Hungarians about swimming in the river.

While Magyar’s government rushed to meet Brussels demands, many Hungarians spent the weekend trying to reach the other side of the Danube.

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