Hungary to Lose Over $1Bln in Funds Frozen by Brussels – Reports
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Hungary will lose 1.04 billion euros ($1.07 billion) out of 6.3 billion euros frozen by Brussels over rule of law claims against Budapest, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Tuesday.Budapest will not receive the funds, as this amount must be allocated by the end of 2024, otherwise the deadline will expire, the report said. The report noted that in total, about 19 billion euros from post-pandemic recovery funds and other EU funds remain frozen for Hungary. The newspaper recalled that in June, a EU court fined Hungary 200 million euros and ordered the country to pay 1 million euros daily for refusing to comply with previous court decisions related to violations of European rules for accepting migrants. 
AnalysisEU Wants to Subdue Hungary by Replacing Viktor Orban With Their Protege – Hungarian Analyst30 October 2024, 17:07 GMTThe remaining funds will likely remain blocked until the parliamentary elections in Hungary in spring of 2026, the report read. The European Commission said in mid-December 2023, that it was ready to unfreeze 10.2 billion euros, roughly a third of Hungary’s total withheld funds, as it had received the latest clarification from Budapest about its claims about the rule of law in the country.
The European Union withheld some 7.5 billion euros worth of payments to Hungary from the shared budget in September 2022 over alleged rule-of-law shortcomings, but Budapest's blocking of EU funding for Ukraine's war effort prompted Brussels to release some of the funds to Hungary in December.
