BRUSSELS, May 23. /TASS/. Freezing of the EU cohesion funds intended for the financing of Hungary’s budget as a measure of pressure on Budapest is counterproductive and leads to fragmentation of the EU, Zselyke Csaky, senior research fellow at the Londong branch of the Centre for European Reform told the Euractiv portal.
She noted that in 2022, the EU froze about 22 billion euros from EU cohesion funds intended for Hungary. The purpose of these funds is to smooth out economic inequality between EU countries and invest in infrastructure, educational and social projects of individual countries of the union.
The funding freeze was related to the violation of certain EU regulations by Viktor Orban’s government, primarily the controversial judicial reform in Hungary, strict migration policy and pressure on individual universities in the country. In 2023, in exchange for lifting Hungary’s veto on aid to Ukraine, Brussels unfroze 10 billion euros, but large amounts of funds remain inaccessible to Budapest due to ongoing pressure.
According to the expert, these measures do not produce results, since the domestic policy of the Orban government remains the same. On the contrary, these actions sharpen the contradictions between the EU institutions and Budapest, which is taking an increasingly hostile position towards Brussels. Orban is turning external pressure to his advantage in front of his domestic audience. The consequence of this will be fragmentation within the EU and the devaluation of its key institutions, especially if the rich countries of the association themselves begin to show a tendency to violate the basic principles of the union.
The European Union is currently developing alternative ways of interaction within the association, which exclude Hungary and other countries where Brussels sees authoritarian tendencies. However, as the expert points out, such formats only lead to an even greater devaluation of pan-European institutions. In this regard, Brussels, according to Csaky, needs to look for other approaches to interaction with Budapest.
