EU moves to suspend billions in financial support to Viktor Orban’s Hungary

Brussels gets tough with far-right government over rule of law

Viktor Orban’s government has until 19 November to address the EU’s concerns (AP)

The European Commission has proposed suspending around a third of Hungary’s EU funding over its government’s questionable approach to the rule of law.

EU budget commissioner Johannes Hahn said on Sunday that the central European country should be stripped of €7.5bn (£6.5bn) of the €22bn in cohesion funds that Budapest is set to receive during the current round of EU budget spending. This represents about 65 per cent of the money allocated under three specific funding streams.

The proposal, if carried, would represent the bloc’s clearest action yet against Viktor Orban's far-right government, which has been accused of corruption and undermining democratic norms.

“Today’s decision is a clear demonstration of the commission’s resolve to protect the EU budget, and to use all tools at our disposal to ensure this important objective,” Mr Hahn said.

The commission’s proposal would have to be approved by a majority of EU member states – which EU diplomats believe is a realistic hurdle.

The move by Brussels represents the first use of a new mechanism introduced two years ago to tie EU budget disbursements to basic democratic standards. Some EU member states had complained that Hungary was taking billions of euros in EU funding while its government flouted the bloc’s values.

In July, the commission’s report on the member state said Mr Orban’s government was presiding over “an environment where risks of clientelism, favouritism and nepotism in high-level public administration remain unaddressed”.

Hungary has until 19 November to address the EU’s concerns before the rule of law procedure moves to the next phase.

On Thursday, members of the European parliament again voted to condemn Hungary’s slide into authoritarianism. In September 2018, the parliament voted by a two-thirds majority, 448 to 197, to initiate Article 7 rule of law proceedings against Hungary.

The UK’s Conservative Party was the only governing conservative party in Western Europe not to back the measure, lining up with the far right and arguing that the motion was “politicised”.

Mr Orban’s government has been accused of violating press freedoms, undermining judicial independence, and waging an antisemitic campaign against leading Jewish businessman George Soros.