{"id":450344,"date":"2026-04-14T19:13:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/04\/14\/magyar-sente-di-nuovo-von-der-leyen-lo-sblocco-dei-fondi-ue-congelati-e-priorita-fondamentale\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T19:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:46:11","slug":"magyar-vonderleyen-eufunds-unblocking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/04\/14\/magyar-vonderleyen-eufunds-unblocking\/","title":{"rendered":"Magyar speaks\u2014again\u2014to von der Leyen: “Unfreezing the EU funds is a key priority”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 European Union leaders are beginning to get to know Hungary\u2019s new prime minister,\u00a0P\u00e9ter Magyar<\/strong>, with the aim of rebuilding a relationship that has deteriorated significantly following sixteen years of government under\u00a0Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong>. Having called the leader of TISZA just a few hours after the polls closed late on Sunday evening (12 April) and congratulated him on the\u00a0victory<\/a>\u00a0achieved in the Hungarian parliamentary elections, the President of the European Commission,\u00a0Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, picked up the phone again this afternoon. And this time, the conversation took a far more pragmatic and concrete turn. \u201cI spoke again with the Prime Minister-elect, P\u00e9ter Magyar, and we discussed the\u00a0immediate priorities<\/strong>,\u201d wrote the German politician\u00a0su X<\/a>, emphasising that \u201cthere is work to be done swiftly to restore, realign, and reform:\u00a0restoring the rule of law<\/strong>,\u00a0realigning with our shared European values<\/strong>, and\u00a0reforming to unlock the opportunities<\/strong>\u00a0offered by European investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hungarian Prime Minister-designate has\u00a0made it even clearer<\/a>\u00a0what the main topic of his conversation with von der Leyen was: “The release of EU funds<\/strong>\u00a0allocated for the Hungarian people<\/strong>,\u00a0but frozen<\/strong>\u00a0due to the corruption of the previous government<\/strong>,” a mission defined by Magyar as “the\u00a0fundamental priority<\/strong>” to which he will devote himself once the handover with Orb\u00e1n is complete. “The new government,” he continued, “will take the key policy decisions on how to release and invest these funds,” and “the Commission will work closely with us to meet the extremely tight deadline” for submitting the payment request.<\/p>\n

Orb\u00e1n\u2019s former right-hand man is referring to the\u00a0\u20ac17 billion\u00a0<\/a>in\u00a0European funds earmarked for Hungary that Brussels has frozen in recent years due to the\u00a0Orb\u00e1n government’s systematic violations of the rule of law<\/strong>. , As the spokesperson for the Berlaymont Building,\u00a0Balasz Ujvari<\/strong>,\u00a0explained<\/a>\u00a0this morning (14 April), \u201caround\u00a0\u20ac7.6 billion<\/strong>\u00a0form part of the\u00a0EU Cohesion Policy<\/a>\u00a0and a further\u00a0\u20ac10.4 billion<\/strong>\u00a0relates to the\u00a0Resilience and Recovery Facility (RRF)<\/a>“, the main instrument of the\u00a0NextGenerationEU<\/strong>\u00a0package, created by the EU to support Member States in their economic and social recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Magyar wants to act swiftly to secure what would be valuable resources for a country currently suffering economically and financially, and this was also evident in a curious detail in his post commenting on the call with von der Leyen. As\u00a0The Guardian<\/em><\/a>\u00a0pointed out, the first version of the message did not contain the adverb “extremely”<\/strong>\u00a0in reference to the “imminent deadline”, and it was only added in a subsequent edit to further emphasise the sensitivity of the matter.<\/p>\n

Lexical choices aside, the urgency is clear. This is particularly true regarding the RRF funds. For Hungary to benefit from these frozen funds, it must demonstrate that it has met the so-called 27\u00a0super milestones<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>namely the mandatory milestones that the Council of the EU established in a 2022 decision to ensure that Budapest implements the\u00a0necessary reforms<\/strong>\u00a0regarding\u00a0judicial independence<\/strong>,\u00a0transparency in the use of European funds<\/strong>, and the implementation of\u00a0anti-corruption measures<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The reason for the urgency is clear: the final deadline for Hungary to demonstrate that it has begun implementing the required reforms and submit a formal\u00a0payment request<\/strong>\u00a0is\u00a031 August 2026<\/strong>. \u201cTime is running out,\u201d warned\u00a0Maciej Popowski<\/strong>, another Commission spokesperson, who also highlighted a paradox: \u201cWe know that some of these reforms have already been implemented by the outgoing government, but we cannot yet formally certify this because Hungary has not sent us the payment request.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magyar, therefore, may well pay the price for\u00a0his predecessor\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0inaction<\/strong>, especially given that Popowski has been categorical about the impossibility of extending the 31 August deadline: \u201cIt is out of the question; the programme\u2019s duration is very clear, and\u00a0the deadline\u00a0<\/em>is set in stone<\/strong>. This applies to Hungary, just as it does to all other countries.\u201d Rather, according to the European Commission spokesperson, the new Hungarian government has\u00a0two options<\/strong>\u00a0to recover the frozen funds in time. “The first is to\u00a0submit the payment request\u00a0<\/strong>(as soon as possible, ed.) so that we can assess whether the milestones have been met; while the second is to\u00a0review their<\/strong>\u00a0Recovery Plan<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>in order to streamline it and retain only those reforms and investments whose implementation is feasible by the end of August,” he explained. “If Magyar believes there are measures that Hungary could not implement by this deadline, it would make sense to consider this option,” Popowski added.<\/p>\n

It is a race against time, and the leader of TISZA seems aware of it. But, as observers at the Berlaymont Building note, for the man capable of bringing Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s era to an end, \u201cwhere there\u2019s a will, there\u2019s a way<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is \u20ac17 billion at stake, but time is running out: the deadline for implementing the reforms needed to unlock the Recovery Fund resources is 31 August 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7899,"featured_media":450023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[27047,26384,26761,33728],"class_list":["post-450344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-eu-en","tag-fondi-en","tag-hungary-en","tag-magyar"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7899"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450344"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450348,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450344\/revisions\/450348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}