The European Commission is set to approve almost all of Hungary's €10 billion allocation from the European Union's post-pandemic Recovery and Resilience Facility later this month, Commission officials have confirmed to Euronews.
The assessment could be published as early as next week, and officials familiar with the file said the Commission "has not identified major obstacles" in Hungary's case, which could mean Budapest receives 100 percent, or close to it, of the amount it requested.
The money comes from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, which expires later this year. All payments have to be authorized by the end of November to be paid before the end of the year, and the Commission expects to complete its remaining assessments under the facility, including Hungary's, by the end of the month.
Prime Minister Péter Magyar, who swept to power in a landslide election victory in April, campaigned on a promise to unlock EU funds frozen during Viktor Orbán's 16 years in office. In May, Magyar and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed to release €16.4 billion that had been withheld over rule-of-law and corruption concerns under Orbán's government.
Of that total, €10 billion is due from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, alongside €4.2 billion in cohesion funding and €2.2 billion linked to academic freedom and higher education reforms. The release of the money was conditioned on Budapest completing sweeping anti-corruption and rule-of-law reforms, with the milestones to be met by August 31.
Hungary's new recovery plan was approved by EU member states in July and revised in August, and the plan is now worth €10 billion in grants and loans, or about 6.8 percent of the country's 2019 gross domestic product. So far Hungary has received only €0.92 billion in pre-financing under the REPowerEU energy program.
The expected approval would mark the end of a years-long standoff between Brussels and Budapest over frozen EU funds, and a major political win for Magyar, whose government pushed the reforms through in its first months in office. Hungary announced in late August that it had met the EU's conditions for payment, and the Commission launched a verification process shortly afterwards.
Under Hungary's revised recovery plan, adopted in August, €3.6 billion — more than a third of the total — was redirected towards capital injections into the Hungarian Development Bank and a newly created, fully state-owned railway company, the Rolling Stock Company. But Budapest still had to fulfil 27 so-called "super milestones" and more than 100 other milestones, and Parliament amended more than 100 laws over the summer, most of them concerning judicial independence and the fight against corruption.
Once the Commission gives a positive recommendation, EU member states must also approve it before payment can follow. In September, the Commission already approved €4.2 billion in frozen cohesion funds for Hungary after Magyar's government implemented rule-of-law and anti-corruption reforms. A further €2.2 billion remains blocked because conditions related to academic freedom and LGBTI+ rights have not been met, and Budapest has yet to submit evidence that those reforms have been delivered.
Euronews said it had sought comment from the Hungarian government but had not received a response.
