The Hungarian parliament has passed a package of laws intended to lead to the release of billions in EU funds for Budapest that were frozen because of a perceived risk of corruption under the previous government.
Some 142 lawmakers voted in favour of the proposal from the government of new Prime Minister Péter Magyar on Tuesday, while 39 voted against and three abstained.
The European Union is currently withholding almost €20 billion ($22.8 billion) in EU funding for Hungary because the previous government under right-wing populist Viktor Orbán is alleged to have misused it.
EU money is said to have ended up, through more or less hidden routes, in the pockets of Orbán’s relatives or those of oligarchs close to him.
Some of it was also allegedly channelled into the propaganda apparatus of the Orbán government.
The package of laws passed on Tuesday includes, among other things, stricter provisions on asset declarations that politicians and senior civil servants must submit. It also abolishes the so-called private foundations in the public interest created by Orbán, through which massive flows of money were steered to beneficiaries of the Orbán system.
The laws will also affect about two-thirds of Hungarian universities. Their governance was taken over by boards of trustees staffed with hand-picked loyalists of the former Orbán government, including senior politicians and pro-government oligarchs.
The EU had excluded these universities from the Erasmus student exchange programme and the Horizon research funding programme because of corruption risks.
