Budapest risks losing around €10 billion in post-pandemic recovery funds if it fails to meet an August deadline.
Incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar will travel to Brussels on Wednesday for urgent talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as he races to unfreeze billions in EU funds.
“I will travel to Brussels on Wednesday for informal talks with the president of the European Commission on unlocking EU funds,” Magyar wrote on X on Sunday. “We have no time to waste.”
A delegation from Magyar’s Tisza party, which won a supermajority in Hungary’s April 12 election, met with European Commission officials on Saturday in Brussels, Magyar said in an earlier post. That followed talks in Budapest last weekend.
The accelerated pace of talks to unlock EU funding comes as Tisza’s defeat of long-time Hungarian leader Victor Orbán has already led to a major breakthrough in EU-Hungary relations. Brussels on Thursday formally approved a €90 billion loan for Ukraine after Budapest — long a holdout under Orbán — dropped its objections, clearing a key political hurdle for Magyar as he seeks to revamp ties with the bloc.
In the earlier talks in Budapest April 18-19, Magyar and his incoming team met with von der Leyen’s chief of staff Björn Seibert and senior officials to map out a path toward releasing funds frozen over rule-of-law and corruption concerns. “This necessary work will continue,” the Commission said in a statement.
Time is tight for the incoming Tisza-led government. Hungary risks losing around €10 billion in post-pandemic recovery funds if it fails to meet an August deadline, while roughly €18 billion remains frozen over democratic backsliding under Orbán. Magyar is also seeking access to additional EU defense financing and relief from daily fines imposed over migration disputes.
Brussels is looking for more than a one-off reset. Officials want Hungary to stay aligned on Ukraine, including backing future sanctions on Russia and dropping its resistance to Kyiv’s EU accession path, while also showing progress on rule-of-law concerns that froze the funds.
“I can say that it is extremely important to bring [the money] home, and as quickly as possible,” Magyar stressed on April 13.