EU Commissioner: Hungarian government's statements not enough, conditions must be fulfilled for money to flow

The Hungarian government has until the end of March to take measures to eliminate corruption and conflicts of interest, and then the freeze on €6.3 billion in cohesion funding could be lifted in May, Népszava writes. The money is needed to fund the Erasmus+ education exchange program and the Horizon Europe research program.

European Commission's Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn spoke about the negotiations at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday. He made clear that

"Making statements or simply ticking off the to-do list will not be enough. The conditions set must be implemented".

Hahn added that he believed the Hungarian government would meet the conditions and will thus receive the money accordingly. He said it was in their interest as well to solve the existing problems.
Among other things, the European Commission expects the Hungarian government to guarantee the autonomy of foundation-run universities and to adopt decisions aimed at curbing certain state corruption. We have written in detail about the whole issue in this article.