Politics

The Hungarian government threatens EU values, institutions, and funds, MEPs say

Published

1 year ago

January 20, 2024

Melissa

Parliament condemns the deliberate, continuous and systematic efforts of the Hungarian government to undermine the EU’s founding values.

In a resolution adopted on Thursday with 345 votes for, 104 against and 29 abstentions, MEPs express strong concern about the further erosion of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights in Hungary, in particular through the recently adopted so-called ‘national sovereignty protection’ package – which has been compared with Russia’s infamous ‘foreign agents law’.

Violations of the EU Treaties

Regretting the Council’s failure to apply the Article 7 (1) procedure (following Parliament’s activation of the mechanism in 2018), Parliament calls on the European Council to determine whether Hungary has committed “serious and persistent breaches of EU values” under the more direct procedure of Article 7(2). MEPs also condemn the actions of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who last December blocked the essential decision to revise the EU’s long-term budget, including the Ukraine aid package, “in full disrespect and violation of the EU’s strategic interests and in violation of the principle of sincere cooperation”. The EU must not give in to blackmail, they highlight.

Protecting EU funds

Parliament regrets the Commission’s decision to release up to €10.2 billion of previously frozen funds, despite Hungary not fulfilling the demanded reforms for judicial independence and the Commission recently prolonging the application of Conditionality Regulation measures.

Further, MEPs condemn the reported systemic discriminatory practices against academia, journalists, political parties and civil society when allocating funds. They regret the use of manipulated public procurement procedures, takeover bids by the government and entities with ties to the Prime Minister, and the use of EU funds to enrich the government’s political allies.

The measures required to release EU funding under different rules must be treated as a single package, and no payments should be made if deficiencies persist in any area. Parliament will look into whether legal action should be pursued to overturn the decision to partially unfreeze funds, and notes that it can use an array of legal and political measures if the Commission is in breach of its duties as the guardian of the Treaties and to protect the EU’s financial interests.

The upcoming Hungarian Presidency of the Council

In light of these issues, Parliament questions if the Hungarian Government will be able to fulfil its duties in the second half of 2024, warning that, if the position of President of the European Council is vacant, those duties would fall to the Hungarian Prime Minister during the country’s six-month Presidency of the Council. MEPs ask the Council to find proper solutions to mitigate these risks, and call for reforms to the Council’s decision-making process, to end the abuse of the right of veto and blackmail.

Source link

Author

Melissa

View all posts

Politics

MSCA awards €608.6 million for doctoral programmes

Published

7 hours ago

April 3, 2025

Mike Vulpo

DISCLAIMER: Information and opinions reproduced in the articles are the ones of those stating them and it is their own responsibility. Publication in The European Times does not automatically means endorsement of the view, but the right to express it.

DISCLAIMER TRANSLATIONS: All articles in this site are published in English. The translated versions are done through an automated process known as neural translations. If in doubt, always refer to the original article. Thank you for understanding.

– Advertisement –

The European Commission has announced the results of the 2024 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks call.

The Commission will fund a total of 149 excellent doctoral programmes with €608.6 million to train over 1800 doctoral candidates in and outside academia.

€536.9 million will be awarded to 133 standard Doctoral programmes, to train PhD candidates and develop their skills.

Funding includes also €26 million for 8 Industrial Doctoral programmes to train PhD candidates and develop their skills outside academia, including in industry and business. Doctoral candidates will also benefit from joint industry-academia supervision.

An additional €33 million will be allocated to 8 Joint Doctoral programmes, which promote joint selection, training and supervision leading to joint or multiple doctoral degrees.

The European Research Executive Agency (REA) received 1,417 applications for this call. This means a success rate of 10.6 %.

Close collaboration beyond academia

These doctoral programmes are implemented by international partnerships, involving 9335 organisations in 130 countries in the EU, Horizon Europe associated countries and beyond. 4725 of these are private for-profit entities.

Selected projects are coordinated by organisations in 18 countries.

Source link

More from the author

– EXCLUSIVE CONTENT –

Author

Mike Vulpo

View all posts

Politics

36 000 free EU travel passes for 18-year-olds

Published

7 hours ago

April 3, 2025

tempuser_2616979069

Members/Partners of

About Us

Popular Category

DISCLAIMER OPINIONS: The opinions of the authors or reproduced in the articles are the ones of those stating them and it is their own responsibility. Should you find any incorrections you can always contact the newsdesk to seek a correction or right of replay.

DISCLAIMER PHOTOS: We mostly used photos images that are readily available online, from free sources, or from the people promoting the news. If by any chance it happens that we have used one of your copyrighted photos, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will take it down without question. We do not make profits as this is a not for profit project to give voice to the voiceless while giving them a platform to be informed also of general news, and it is completely free.