Joint assessment published by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee on 16/11/2023 – accessible here.
The European Union is currently blocking EU funds to Hungary under three separate instruments due to rule of law, anti-corruption and human rights concerns.
In order to comply with EU requirements and access funds, certain legislative and administrative steps were taken by the Hungarian government and governing majority. However, the implementation of the reforms falls short of expectations, also lacking both pace and genuine commitment, and the effectiveness and sustainability of the already adopted changes remain largely to be seen.
In a new joint paper, six Hungarian civil society organisations provide a “traffic-light” assessment of Hungary’s compliance with the conditionality measures and the milestones under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, and with the horizontal enabling condition “effective application and implementation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights”, and provide brief explanations on the main deficiencies regarding the implementation. Our assessment concludes that, until 15 November 2023, the Hungarian government has not taken adequate steps to fully address the rule of law and human rights concerns raised. Hence it has not complied with most of the conditions established by EU institutions to access EU funds:
- Out of the 27 “super” milestones (a precondition of any payment under the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility), 13 have been achieved, 12 have been achieved only partly, and 2 have not been achieved.
- Out of the 27 “ordinary” milestones and targets relevant from a rule of law and anti-corruption perspective that were due by the end of the third quarter of 2023 the latest, 9 have been achieved, 11 have been achieved only partly, and 7 have not been achieved.
- Out of the four areas of concern identified in relation to the operational programmes and the effective application and implementation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, two areas have been only partially addressed, and two areas have not been addressed at all.