Fidesz MEP Tamás Deutsch has said the ruling party rejects the European Union’s plan to tie community funds to “conditions of a so-called rule of law, as a political punishment”.
In a statement released in Strasbourg on Wednesday, Deutsch said the EU’s 2021-2027 budget was “unacceptable” because its authors applied “double standards”. He added that the budget would significantly reduce regional development and agricultural subsidies.
According to MTI, the MEP said that the European People’s Party, of which Fidesz is a member, had voiced support for his proposals aimed at raising regional and rural development subsidies by six billion euros in the 2020 budget.
Deutsch insisted that the community should ensure sufficient funding to reimburse member states for projects already completed. The EU’s development subsidies are “not handouts”, Deutsch said, and argued that rural areas in Hungary were entitled to those funds on the basis of objective criteria. “No EU institution must consider development funds as a means of exerting political pressure,” he added.
Photo credit: Magyar Idők