European Commission says they did not ask Hungarian government to abolish 13th month pension

"Brussels is demanding that the Hungarian government abolish the 13th month pension. The government rejects this demand. The government believes that the thirteenth month pension should be made permanent in the coming years" – point 9 of the national consultation on the Hungarian government's new economic policy states. This is not the only mention of Brussels in the consultation, however, as the Orbán government references it several times.

Népszava contacted the European Commission about Brussels' alleged plans mentioned in the questionnaire sent to all Hungarian households and was told, among other things, that "the questions asked in the Hungarian national consultation are at times factually incorrect or misleading. If the questions asked are based on false premises, then the answers cannot be conducive to a genuine public debate".

They wrote that it is simply not true that the EU institutions had requested that the Hungarian government abolish the thirteenth month pension. In fact, the Pension Adequacy Report, which the European Commission has prepared jointly with the Member States, has described the 13th month pension as a measure that improves pension adequacy.

In response to the national consultation's claim that Brussels had launched a trade war against Eastern countries, notably China and Russia, the Commission replied that the EU follows the framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and only takes action when the other side is not respecting the rules. In such cases, their goal is to protect the EU's industry.

Regarding China, they said that they would like to engage in trading with the country based on reciprocity and a level playing field, and that no one wants a trade war. They also added that "The Hungarian government voted in favour of all fourteen sanctions packages against Russia in the Council".

As for the statement about the fine, (“According to the European Commission's decision, Hungary should pay a fine of €1 million a day because it refuses to open its borders to migrants.”) the European Commission said that the premise itself is false, as the fine was not imposed in relation to the migration pact, but because of a court ruling from 2020, which Hungary has failed to comply with. The case was about the rights of asylum seekers arriving in Hungary for a fair trial and appeal, and not about resettlement, they said.

The Hungarian government announced the latest national consultation – this time on “economic neutrality” in mid-October. We previously wrote in detail about what a national consultation is, how the Hungarian government has used it in the past, as well as why its “results” are highly questinable.