Come home, EU funds! Under this title, the Development Policy Section of the Hungarian Economic Association (HEA) is organizing a professional roundtable discussion on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, starting at 3:00 PM, at the HEA Community Space (ELTE Faculty of Law, Building B, 1053 Budapest, Kecskeméti út 10–12, 4th floor, room 403) and on the HEA YouTube channel. Participants in the discussion include József Péter Martin, Executive Director of Transparency International Hungary; András Léderer, senior staff member of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee; and Tamás Juhász, Chief Economic Advisor at the Representation of the European Commission in Hungary. The discussion will be moderated by Péter Heil, Vice President of the HEA Development Policy Section.
Bringing home the currently frozen European Union funds will be one of the most urgent tasks of the new government. Negotiations have already begun, but the end-of-August deadline—when €10.4 billion in funding could be permanently lost—is fast approaching. The fate of an additional €8 billion in cohesion policy funds must also be resolved. Together, this amounts to nearly 7,000 billion forints—almost two-thirds of all Hungarian development funding—not including the losses resulting from the suspension of the Erasmus and Horizon programs. What exactly needs to be done to make the suspended EU funds accessible again to the Hungarian state, local governments, businesses, and civil society organizations? How has the Orbán government negotiated with the Union since 2022? Where does Hungary stand in fulfilling the required measures? Will Hungary become a state governed by the rule of law if these measures are implemented? How have the rule-of-law conditionality mechanism and the Article 7 procedure performed in recent years from the perspectives of both Hungary and the European Union? We will seek answers to these exciting, important, and timely questions with our experts, who have closely followed the debates surrounding EU funds in Hungary and across the Union in recent years.
The event will be streamed live on the HEA YouTube channel at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBz6bAQxfII
In-person participation is free of charge, but due to limited seating capacity, prior registration is required. Those interested are kindly asked to indicate their intention to attend in advance as soon as possible at mkt@mkt.hu.