{"id":90378,"date":"2026-05-28T14:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T14:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/90378\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T14:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T14:29:12","slug":"hungarys-quest-to-unblock-frozen-eu-funds-seized-by-thorny-issues-like-russian-fuel-reliance-and-ukraine-euobserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/90378\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungary\u2019s quest to unblock frozen EU funds seized by thorny issues like Russian fuel reliance and Ukraine \u2013 EUobserver"},"content":{"rendered":"

A meeting between Hungary and the European Commission on Friday (29 May) has been described by the new prime minster P\u00e9ter Magyar as its \u201cmost important talks of recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magyar is hoping to unblock over \u20ac10.4bn in frozen EU post-pandemic Covid funds following a planned meeting on Friday with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.<\/p>\n

The commission has declined to offer any detailed comments given the sensitivity of the issue, but has confirmed that the phasing out of Russian energy will also likely be broached.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not anticipate, prejudge, include, or exclude any particular topic,\u201d said Paula Pinho, chief spokesperson for the commission, when pressed.<\/p>\n

Magyar\u2019s government wants to phase out its Russian energy reliance by 2035, whereas the EU has set an overall deadline for next year under its so-called RepowerEU roadmap.<\/p>\n

The dependency on Russian energy is a legacy of his pro-Kremlin predecessor Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/a>, who had led a nationalist government for some 16 years before being ousted in last month\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n

The Center for the Study of Democracy, a Sofia-based think tank,<\/a> says Hungary deepened its reliance on Russian oil since receiving an EU derogation in 2022, with Russian crude accounting for over 90 percent of imports by 2025.<\/p>\n

It also found that domestic fuel prices in Hungary\u202fwere on average\u202f18 percent higher than in the\u202fneighbouring\u202fCzech Republic in 2025, even though\u202fBudapest\u202fstill buys\u202fcheaper\u202fRussian oil.<\/p>\n

Magyar has since vowed to reverse engineer Orb\u00e1n\u2019s policies and hold his Fidesz party accountable for widespread alleged corruption in the hopes of also normalising relations with the EU and unblocking a further \u20ac17bn over rule of law issues.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But Hungary also risks losing access to \u20ac10.4bn in Covid-era funds if it fails to meet a series of milestones by 31 August, creating a sense of urgency for Magyar\u2019s Tisza party, which enjoys a constitutional majority.<\/p>\n

Of that sum, \u20ac6.5bn are grants and the remaining \u20ac3.9bn are cheap loans.<\/p>\n

Unlocking these funds will require Budapest to present the commission with a plan that would satisfy\u00a027 specific \u201csuper milestones\u201d\u00a0focused on judicial independence, anti-corruption measures and financial transparency. <\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Pinho said Magyar will also be attending upcoming meetings dealing with Ukraine\u2019s enlargement.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s fate for eventual EU membership has so far been stalled by Hungary\u2019s veto, given outstanding issues over a Hungarian minority in Ukraine\u2019s western region of Transcarpathia.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some 150,000 ethnic Hungarians live in the area. Magyar had last week announced plans to meet with Ukraine\u2019s president Zelensky in June should the thorny issue over their rights be sorted, including language.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A meeting between Hungary and the European Commission on Friday (29 May) has been described by the new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[137],"tags":[280,359,298,292,290,296,357,291,297,358,403],"class_list":["post-90378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-typedefinedterm","tag-identifier24","tag-identifier29","tag-identifier4278","tag-namehungary","tag-namerule-of-law","tag-nameukraine","tag-termcodehungary","tag-termcoderule-of-law","tag-termcodeukraine","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116652681781608955","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}