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Hungarian Parliament: Gov’t can only support taking on a joint EU loan if it is not tied to any political or ideological condition

If we get caught up in political disputes, we will not have an economic recovery, nor a new EU budget.

With 128 votes in favor, 16 against and one abstention, the Hungarian Parliament voted today on the government’s proposal as to the conditions under which Hungary can support taking on a joint EU loan to remedy the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a decision that is expected following this weekend’s European Council meeting in Brussels.

According to the parliament’s decision, while Hungary itself wouldn’t need funds from the recovery budget, it’s willing to agree to take on the joint loan out of solidarity with southern member states and those countries that didn’t manage to handle the coronavirus crisis effectively. The adopted proposal outlines that the Hungarian Government can only support the initiative if poorer states will also get a fair share of the budget and if the money received can only be spent on rebooting the economy, stimulating growth and preserving jobs.

In addition, access to the joint resources cannot be tied to any political or ideological condition, such as the oft-repeated “rule of law criteria.”

As Prime Minister Orbán said in his regular Friday morning interview last week, “Europe should be dealing with restarting the economy, as it is quite apparent that rule-of-law disputes immediately turn into political debates – if these two are mixed up, we will not have an economic reboot, nor a new budget.”