Hungary will refuse to approve any version of the EU’s next seven-year budget unless the Commission releases its remaining frozen funds, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Saturday, July 26th.
Just like other member states and European Parliamentary groups, Orbán said the EU Commission’s €2 trillion proposal for the 2028-2034 multiannual financial framework (MFF) was unacceptable in its current form.
However, even if the EU Council manages to reach a better consensus, Budapest will continue to veto it until Brussels releases the remaining €12 billion of its cohesion funds, which are currently frozen due to alleged rule of law violations.
“The approval of the new seven-year budget requires unanimity, and until we get the remaining funds, there won’t be a new EU budget either,” Orbán said.
Hungary has long accused the von der Leyen Commission of engaging in ideological and political “blackmail” by withholding the funds from the conservative government. The Commission hopes to force Hungary into dropping its tough stance on migration and LGBTQ issues, while at the same time weakening the country’s economy to make cash-strapped citizens more inclined to vote for the opposition.
In his traditional speech at the Tusványos summer university in Transylvania on Saturday, Orbán once again accused Brussels of wanting to install a “pro-Ukraine and pro-Brussels” government in Hungary after the next general election in April 2026.
In this regard, the situation is similar to how Poland’s frozen funds helped PM Donald Tusk’s liberal coalition take over from the conservative PiS in 2023. One of Tusk’s main campaign promises, just like the Hungarian opposition’s, was to bring home the frozen funds. The money was almost instantly unlocked after the election—before any reform had been implemented—suggesting that freezing the funds was indeed a political instrument rather than a genuine effort to protect the rule of law.
In addition, Orbán heavily criticized the Commission’s long-term EU budget (known as the Multiannual Financial Framework, or MFF) for prioritizing Ukraine over the needs of EU member states and EU citizens. Farmers, in particular, will see their subsidies cut by around 23% to free up funds for Kyiv and Europe’s rearmament.
“Some 20% of the money would go to Ukraine, and the EU would spend the rest to prepare for war,” the PM explained. “This budget is about an EU that’s currently in war with Russia, on the territory of Ukraine.”
“Hungary is not interested in a wartime budget; we need a budget that serves peace and economic progress, so we don’t even consider this proposal as a basis for negotiations,” Orbán added.
