INDEX – Abroad – the expert speculates whether Budapest has finally turned its back on Moscow

On April 26, the UN member states voted in favor of the resolution officially recognizing Russia as an aggressor in the conflict in Ukraine. The resolution was supported by 122 UN member states, including China, India, Kazakhstan, Brazil and Hungary, all of which are strategic partners of Russia. Only five voted against 122: Russia, Belarus, Nicaragua, Syria and North Korea.

Is EU money above everything else?

According to Georgi Berkadze, a political expert and economist born in Georgia and residing in Ukraine, even Hungary, which is making money from Russian gas and oil, decided to deal with the Russians and voted for the UN resolution against Russia.

Until now, Hungary was the only country in the European Union that supported Russia, but now it also voted in favor of the UN resolution. Don’t you think they are beginning to understand that Russia is over?

Berkadze asked.

In addition, he notes that it benefits 100% from Russian gas and oil, which is still an insignificant amount compared to the resources of the European Union. Hungary began to realize that it must end its relationship with Russia. However, the expert notes that it is also possible that this is also part of the EU-Hungarian bargaining policy, he writes. life Ukrainian portal review.

The stakes are high

Speaking to Index, the former development policy expert said: Not only is the arrival of EU funds important for recapitalizing the normally underfunded domestic SME sector, it is at least important for the country to maintain its ability to attract capital.

The first quarter, which we have been slowly lagging behind, was not a very strong period for the Hungarian economy, and it is expected that even the second one will not be so strong, so for the time being, the forecast for GDP growth of 4 percent for next year seems more solid than this year’s expansion of 1.5 percent – saw Ise Sombor.

They only see a 5 to 10 percent chance that the agreement will not be reached and that, as a result, the cohesion money will not reach Hungary. As a result, there is a 90-95 percent chance of a deal being reached, according to Essősy, who predicts that even if not every document is sealed, meaningful partial results leading to a final agreement will already be available in negotiations with the European Commission within a month.

The current quandary is that, in his view, instead of professional arguments and counter-arguments, the debate has now clearly turned to the political level: the Hungarian government does not want to give in on many things, just as the bureaucracy in Brussels does. Not making several billion euros available to us without conditions.

We can get close to EU money

We wrote on Wednesday, following Bloomberg, about the fact that the Hungarian parliament adopted legislation aimed at depoliticizing the courts in order to release nearly half of the funds withheld by the European Union over concerns about the rule of law and corruption.

According to Johannes Hahn, the EU’s budget commissioner, the approval could help Hungary call up €13 billion (4,800 billion forints) in EU funds, which are part of the €22 billion cohesion fund earmarked for the country. Hahn said further measures are needed to withdraw the remaining amount, as well as 5.8 billion euros, from the recovery fund.

(Cover photo: Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban on February 17, 2015. Photo: Gergely Butar/Prime Minister’s Office/AFP)