Hungary has managed to unlock some €2 billion in European Union funds as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's government made further progress in restoring crucial funding. Bloomberg reports this.
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The European Commission unblocked the last tranche after Hungary fulfilled the so-called thematic conditions related to educational preparation and gender equality, said the representative of the EU executive body Stefan de Keersmaeker.
Although these funds are part of the more than 30 billion euros allocated to Hungary that the EU decided to withhold more than a year ago, the conditions met by Budapest were not related to concerns about the rule of law or corruption – the main reasons for the funding freeze.
In December, the EU released 10.2 billion euros after Hungary met the bloc's demands to strengthen the independence of the judiciary.
According to the latest decision, the amount of funds that the EU continues to withhold from Hungary has dropped to about 19 billion euros, said de Keersmaeker. About half of these are grants and loans for recovery from COVID-19, and the other half are so-called cohesion funds.
It should be noted that cohesion funds support those EU member states whose gross national income is per capita below 90% of the average level of EU member states.