Brussels Leftists Demand Hungary Be Stripped of All EU Funds

Over two dozen members of the European Parliament, ranging from the center to the far-left, have signed a joint letter urging the European Commission to freeze “all” of Hungary’s EU funds. The move comes in response to a recently proposed transparency law that, if adopted, will give a Hungarian government agency sweeping powers to monitor and sanction foreign-funded organizations suspected of undermining national sovereignty and distorting democratic processes.

“Continuing to fund a corrupt regime openly undermining European values is unacceptable,” the 26 MEPs wrote in the letter, addressed to Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin and Rule of Law Commissioner Michael McGrath. “We therefore call on you to urgently withhold all funding to Hungary through all available legal instruments.”

Under the current budgetary period, Hungary is entitled to about €34 billion in EU cohesion funds and other instruments. About half of this has already been frozen due to various highly politicized rule of law concerns, including the treatment of illegal migrants and alleged discrimination against LGBT people.

Just like in Poland before PM Tusk’s liberal coalition took over, the frozen funds have already proven to be the most potent political weapon in the hands of the country’s opposition, so withholding the remaining money could have catastrophic consequences for Hungary’s democratically elected government ahead of the 2026 elections—which is exactly what the Brussels elite are hoping for.

The letter was signed by members of von der Leyen’s centrist EPP, the social democrat S&D, the liberal Renew, the Greens, and The Left. Neither of the three conservative blocs—Patriots, ECR, ESN—joined the effort.

The recently proposed draft law on the Transparency in Public Life builds on the 2023 Defense of Sovereignty act, which established the Hungarian Sovereignty Protection Office, a body tasked with countering foreign interference in Hungarian politics after the 2022 parliamentary election, in which opposition parties were caught accepting millions from U.S.-based NGOs to try and influence the outcome.

While the Hungarian government insists that the new transparency proposal is modeled after the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), left-liberal critics claim it is significantly harsher in both scope and enforcement power.

Similarly to the U.S. and EU legislation that’s being developed, the new Hungarian law would require any foreign-funded organization that engages in political activism, including NGOs and media, to register on a list and disclose their finances to the public. 

The reason why it’s considered stricter than the FARA, is that the Hungarian law would give the Sovereignty Protection Office the power to proactively surveil and investigate registered entities and to label them as a threat to national sovereignty, allegedly without proper judicial oversight and based on intentionally vague criteria. Once that happens, these organizations can be fined up to 25 times as much as the foreign funding they have received, as well as blocked from receiving any domestic funds, including donations.

According to the Hungarian government, the law is necessary to protect the country’s electoral integrity after countless attempts of interference uncovered in recent years, and its opponents are deliberately distorting its intent to claim that it will be used as a political weapon to crack down on dissent.

The issue was also put on the plenary agenda on Wednesday, May 21st, when MEPs held a heated debate about whether member states should have the right to use any means necessary to protect themselves from foreign interference.

MEP Csaba Dömötör (PfE), from Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, was quick to demonstrate to colleagues why the law is needed. 

“The EU Commission, like the USAID, has a system for distributing money to left-liberal activist groups in exchange for political lobbying. 37,000 contracts have been signed to a value of €17 billion,” Dömötör said, including with NGOs, biased “fact-checkers,” and mainstream media, with the latter being secretly funneled €130 million from Brussels during last year’s EU election campaign.

“And on the list of the organizations funded by the Commission are entities that drag my home country through the dirt and, in many cases, support the political campaigns of political parties that you’ve just heard from before me,” the lawmaker added.

Other Patriots and those from the other two conservative blocs, Giorgia Meloni’s ECR and the AfD-led ESN, also came out in support of the Hungarian government and condemned Brussels’ double standards.

As for the EU Commission, it has not yet indicated whether it wants to make the unprecedented move of stripping Hungary of all its remaining funds, but rule of law chief Michael McGrath hinted that the law would not go unanswered.

“Transparency and accountability are core to our democracies. But they must not be misused to shrink civic space or limit freedoms like expression or association,” McGrath said in Wednesday. “We are watching closely, and will not hesitate to act to uphold EU law.”