"There may be governmental discrimination, but it is not systemic" – Navracsics admitted

"The reception of the delegation in Budapest was somewhat hostile. From the very start, their visit was the focus of a campaign by pro-government media. Some of the MEPs were deliberately slandered, and the purpose of the visit was termed a 'witch hunt' or an inquisition" – so begins the draft report of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) fact-finding mission to Hungary in May, which was obtained by Népszava.

In the introduction to the draft report, the MEPs call on the Hungarian government to immediately meet the criteria set for the disbursement of a total of €28 billion in community funding.

The members of the multi-party delegation made the following points in their summary of their meetings:

• They observed some positive developments but continue to await specific findings on corruption in Hungary from the newly established Integrity Authority,
• the State Audit Office (SAO) failed to provide convincing evidence of effective control over the spending of EU funds,
• "the delegation was surprised that the President of the SAO consistently refrained from explaining the SAO's activities in recent years",
• representatives from the business world provided specific information about the government's discriminatory measures which distort competition, such as arbitrary overnight changes to laws, unjustified measures taken under the pretext of the "state of danger", including unfair special taxes and fees, and various intimidation tactics, such as visits by the secret police to companies' premises.

According to the delegates' summary, Erik Bánki, the Fidesz-delegated chairman of the economic affairs committee, characterized the general economic situation as "optimistic" and said that the Hungarian economy had withstood the economic crisis and the high inflation.

The Regional Development Minister, Tibor Navracsics was criticised because, according to the committee's information, opposition-run municipalities, such as that of Budapest, were finding it harder to access EU funds.

Navracsics admitted that "there may be governmental discrimination, but it is not systemic".

With regard to Budapest, he noted that two thirds of all Hungarian regions are underdeveloped, and therefore the Budapest municipality should contribute to their development.

The delegation will follow up on the information received and forward it to the European Commission, the European Court of Auditors, the EU's Anti-Fraud Office and the European Public Prosecutor's Office, the newspaper writes. The document will be discussed by committee members next Monday and finalised in a few weeks.

As reported in detail by Telex, a delegation from the EP's Budgetary Control Committee led by Committee chair Monika Hohlmeier, visited Budapest for three days in May and still had unanswered questions at the end of their visit.