We Need EU Money, but Only If We Can Spend It the Way We Want

Huge amounts of EU money are at stake, a credit line that can lead to negative interest rates, large-scale government plans, the threat of indebtedness, but also the watchful eyes of the European Union institutions; just what is the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)? What does it have to do with the mystery of the rule of law, and why does the Hungarian government not ask for ‘free money’? A quick look at the political dimension of the EU Reconstruction Fund.

The news exploded like a bomb a few weeks ago, but contrary to previous announcements, the government of Hungary is not yet asking for a 3.3 trillion forint (circa 9.52 billion euros) loan from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility and is submitting a new, revised plan for only the non-refundable cohesion funds from the RRF.

The European Commission now has two months to assess the formal recovery and resilience plans it has received from national governments on the basis of the 11 criteria set out in the regulation.

According to the official timetable, the European Commission will process the Hungarian plan by the beginning of July – it will have to evaluate the plans submitted by 26 other Member States a little earlier in the previous two weeks – and the Council of Ministers will have the final say.