Hungary cannot accept the European Union’s 2021-27 budget in its present form and will veto it if unchanged, state minister for EU developments Tamás Schanda said in an interview.
The EU budget for the next seven-year period will cut cohesion funds for Hungary by the maximum possible 24 percent, while the overall reduction will only be 10 percent, Tamás Schanda (pictured above), deputy state minister at the Ministry for Innovation and Technology told Magyar Idők in an interview.
“Brussels is intent on punishing those states – predominantly Central European ones – who fight for their sovereignty”
We cannot accept a budget that takes money away from European citizens and gives it to migrants. This clearly shows that the European Commission believes it is a kind of political committee. Fortunately, the final decision is not theirs – it will be made by the European Council consisting of the member states’ leaders.
Schanda said that compared with the current seven-year budgetary cycle the EU’s more affluent states would receive more funding while for example the Central European states would get less. According to the current budget draft the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia will have their cohesion funds reduced by 24 percent while Greece would see an increase of 8 percent, Italy 6.4 percent, Finland and Spain 5 percent.
“This goes both against the EU’s fundamental treaty and the very principle of cohesion,” Schanda said. In addition, they also want to reduce agricultural subsidies by 16 percent and make them less accessible.
He said the current commission intends to close budget negotiations before next year’s European elections (to be held on May 23-26), but Hungary is of the opinion that all open issues should be solved before any agreement.
“It is quite possible that a different policy will emerge after the elections. (…) There is no rush, we still have plenty of time to work out a mutually acceptable solution before 2021.”
