We have reached an agreement with the EU – Navracsics

All indications are that the ambassadors reached an agreement on the Hungarian Recovery Fund last night in Brussels, Minister for Regional Development Tibor Navracsics said at a press conference he and Gergely Gulyás, Minister at the Prime Minister's Office held on Tuesday morning. "All the goals we set ourselves in July have been achieved," he added.

This means that Hungary can now access EU funds. We are talking about two large sums:

• HUF 2300 billion will be opened up under the recovery plan,
• the other is the operational programme.

Our negotiating strategy was clear from the start," Mr Navracsics said. All of the concerns and comments from the Commission have been examined by the Hungarian government. Where there was room for compromise, it was granted.

We are confident that the agreements can be signed within days.

- the regional development minister said.

As soon as the EU funds arrive, teachers’ wages will be increased

In response to a question from the press, Navracsics said that Parliament would adopt a further package of laws by the end of March, after which the suspension of EU funds could be lifted in April.

As soon as EU money is available, the teachers' pay increase will be implemented. If Hungary can get the money in early January, teachers' wages will be increased as early as January,

Gergely Gulyás, Minister at the Prime Minister's Office announced.

An agreement has been reached that the European Union does not need to take out additional loans for aid to Ukraine, the minister continued in response to the next question. The 18 billion euros will be provided from the EU budget. The Hungarian government would have liked member states to conclude agreements with Ukraine at member state level, but the compromise was to provide the aid from the EU budget.

Mr Navracsics did not notice that the negotiations between the Hungarian government and the European Commission were tense. He said that if Brussels had not bundled up the various programmes, the Hungarian recovery plan could have been adopted much earlier. "We were calm throughout the process" he said. In the European Union, on the other hand, there was hysteria from the start, but it seems that the calmness paid off.

There is no specific date yet for the signing of the partnership agreement, as it was necessary to wait for yesterday's agreement. It will be clear in a few days when the signing can happen.

The plan is to launch 25 new tenders for investments financed by cohesion funds by the end of March," Mr Navracsics said.

Corruption scandals and corruption cases have been going on since the allocation of development funds. If they want to protect this by legal means, I fully agree," he said. But the minister added that he cannot accept that legal instruments should be overridden by political considerations. The more we succeed in keeping political and party political goals at bay, the faster the rule of law mechanism can be concluded.

Sweden and Finland’s NATO accession on Hungarian Parliament’s agenda for February

In response to another question from the press, Gergely Gulyás said that the spring session of the National Assembly will begin on 20 February. According to normal procedure, the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO will be discussed then. Mr Gulyás and Mr Navracsics could not say whether parliament would vote in favour of the proposal, but added that the governing parties are backing it.

Tibor Navracsics said Hungary was setting an example to other EU countries on how to negotiate without hysteria, and that its approach to the cleaning up of public procurement could serve as a be a model for others. He also said that the country stands to benefit from the milestones the Hungarian government has committed to towards the European Commission.

I have always believed that reality is on Hungary's side," Gulyás added. He said that the anti-corruption measures are taking the country in the right direction. The corruption situation could always be improved, but the level of corruption matters, according to him. He believes that the level of corruption in Hungary is by no means worse than in Western Europe.