Hungary's new leader seeks to unlock billions in frozen EU funds

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar met Friday with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels. The meeting aimed to unlock billions of euros in frozen funding that the EU had blocked over democratic concerns under Magyar's predecessor, Viktor Orbán.

Orbán's 16-year rule ended in April when Magyar's party won a landslide election. Magyar campaigned partly on rebuilding ties with the European Union. Von der Leyen and other EU leaders had clashed with Orbán, who dismantled institutional checks and balances in Hungary.

The EU froze Hungary's funding in 2022 over corruption worries and the weakening of judicial independence. In 2023, EU officials said Hungary had made enough progress to release around 10.2 billion euros ($12.1 billion). Magyar's party won a super-majority in parliament, allowing rapid reforms and making leaders on both sides keen to release the money quickly to help Hungary's struggling economy.

The frozen funds total 16.3 billion euros: 10 billion euros for COVID recovery and 6.3 billion euros for cohesion support to help weaker EU economies. Brussels and Budapest teams are prioritising the COVID funds because they expire in August. Magyar said his government is restoring judicial independence, academic freedom, media freedom, and fighting corruption to access the money. In a social media post on Friday, he wrote he would soon meet von der Leyen, where "we will reach a political agreement on the hundreds of billions of (Hungarian) forints in EU funding allocated to our country."