Gergely Gulyás, Head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said on Wednesday that the European Union’s draft budget for the next seven-year funding cycle is "unacceptable", arguing that it would cut cohesion and agricultural funding for member states in order to "divert them to Ukraine".
Gulyás told a regular government press briefing that the draft budget allocates 88 billion euros for Ukraine and another 190 billion for its EU accession, accounting for around a quarter of the total budget.
The money would be diverted from cohesion funds and the agricultural subsidies that are critical for central and southern Europe, Gulyás said, expressing the government’s agreement with protests by Hungarian and European farmers.
Gulyás called on all Hungarian political players to condemn the European Commission’s draft budget, saying that "anyone who supports this budget in its current form, considers Ukraine to be more important than Hungary".
While diverting subsidies to Ukraine, money that Brussels spends on its own bureaucracy will be increased, he said, adding that 2,500 new hires and salary rises were on the cards.
Hungary will stick up for its own interests and those of Central Europe, and insist on the return to "an objective cohesion policy free from conditionality used to blackmail the member states". It also insists on farm subsidies remaining in their current form, he said.
Gulyás said no one was under the illusion that the budget could be passed in the next 10 months. The commission, he added, wanted it to be adopted in the second half of 2026, "and this gives member states an opportunity to protest". The budget can only be adopted unanimously, he added.
Meanwhile, he said a subsidised credit programme for first-time home buyers is set to start on Sept 1.
Gulyás said public consultations on the home loan scheme would start early in the coming week, adding that the banking system was ready for the roll-out on September 1.