Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán made sure that Hungary will have enough financing to launch its own recovery program despite the row with the European Commission, Romanian daily Evenimentul Zilei writes.
“Hungarian Prime Minister won’t make political compromises. He announced that ‘regardless of what Brussels does,’ Hungary will have a solid enough financial basis to launch all recovery programs citizens need in the wake of the COVID pandemic,” reads the paper.
If Hungary’s government does not receive the money due for its National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) from the European Commission “for political reasons“, Hungary will go it alone to international markets to compensate for its lack of resources, the Hungarian prime minister announced.
The Hungarian Minister of Finance solved this problem “in a brilliant way” and attracted money through a loan “whose conditions are favorable in a way that is perhaps unprecedented,” said Orbán, according to flux24.
The announcement comes in the context of tensions between the European Commission and Hungary over the country’s child protection law, which opponents have branded as anti-LGBT. The Hungarian law makes clear that sexual education remains the purview of parents for children under 18 and that no child will be exposed to educational material within the school system that promotes gender changes or same-sex sexual activity. The law is largely in line with Hungarian public sentiment.
Orbán has stated that he does not intend to accept European Commission funds if they depend on the promotion of pro-LGBT laws.
Hungary will refuse EU funding to protect Hungarian citizens
Orbán is not willing to accept the funds made available by the European Commission through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan if they involve the adoption of laws that “restrict information about homosexuality”.
Hungary should receive from the European officials, through NRRP, an amount of about €7.2 billion.
European officials have approved the NRRPs of several countries in the European Union, but not Hungary, which is covered by a report by European officials that can be used as a tool to withdraw European funds promised to the state.
The European Commission did not specifically state that the non-approval of Hungary’s NRRP would have to do with the anti-LGBT law adopted by Hungarian officials. However, according to the Hungarian decree, the European Commission is delaying the approval of the NRRP “due to the political rejection of national legislation on child protection”.
Hungary will only accept an agreement in which “the European Commission does not impose on Hungary a condition that does not apply to other member states”.
Title image: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
