Hungary will apply to the European Commission for a €3.9 billion loan from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), and the documents will be submitted to the Commission by the deadline on Thursday, Minister of Regional Development Tibor Navracsics told journalists at an event in Budapest on Thursday.
Navracsics said that the €3.9 billion in loans, as before, will go toward financing energy infrastructure, energy efficiency tenders and green transition projects. He said that the plan was subject to a public consultation until Aug. 11. After the committee’s evaluation, the projects will be revealed.
Asked when this credit line would be disbursed, Navracsics could not give an answer, indicating that the program details would be sent to the EU commission on Thursday. He added, however, that the RRF projects should be completed by the end of summer 2026.
Regarding the EU funds Hungary is due, the minister said the commission has still not made a formal assessment of the Hungarian government’s response to the EU’s objections regarding Hungary’s rule of law.
One critical program that depends on EU funding is the Erasmus European student exchange program. Navracsics said he believed that Erasmus is one of the most effective advertisements for European integration, and inexplicably, the EU wants to deny students this program. He called the exclusion of higher education universities from Erasmus ideological discrimination and a political attack by the left.
Navracsic said that funding is currently assured until the first half of 2024, and should the EU not reverse its decision until then, the Hungarian government has earmarked the funding necessary from its domestic budget.
