Today the European Commission has proposed to the Council to lift the protective measures adopted in 2022 concerning Hungary under the Conditionality Regulation, as it considers that Hungary has addressed the rule of law breaches affecting the EU budget.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the Commission: "Hungary has taken important steps to strengthen the rule of law and protect the Union's financial interests. Today, we are proposing to unlock €4.2 billion and reopen the doors of Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe to Hungarian students and researchers. I am glad that they will once again fully benefit from the opportunities our Union creates. This shows that reforms deliver results."
If adopted by the Council, the proposal would reinstate €4.2 billion in suspended cohesion policy commitments and restore access to Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe for students and researchers from universities maintained by Hungarian Public Interest Trusts.
The Commission has assessed the remedies notified by Hungary on 9 September 2026 and their implementation and concluded that Hungary has addressed the previously identified weaknesses and shortcomings in areas such as public procurement, the anti-corruption framework, risks of conflicts of interest, and the effectiveness of prosecutorial action.
In particular, Hungary has reinforced the powers of the Integrity Authority and its access to necessary data; established a comprehensive asset declaration system; increased transparency and addressed conflict-of-interest risks related to Public Interest Trusts, pending their termination; extended judicial review of decisions by investigative and prosecution authorities; and significantly strengthened controls over EU funding, as well as transparency in public procurement and public spending more broadly.
Beyond the measures taken under the Conditionality Regulation, Hungary's accession to the European Public Prosecutor's Office, together with new rules on beneficial ownership and public procurement, further strengthens its fight against corruption and the prevention of conflicts of interest.
With today's proposal for a Council Implementing Decision, the Commission found that the conditions to apply measures under the Conditionality Regulation are no longer fulfilled. The Council has one month from the Commission Proposal to decide on the lifting of protective measures adopted in 2022.
Background
On 15 December 2022, the Council, on a proposal by the Commission, adopted an implementing decision setting measures to protect the Union budget from breaches of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary. These breaches related to the areas of public procurement, prosecutorial action, conflict of interest, the fight against corruption and the public interest trusts.
The two measures adopted by the Council were (i) a suspension of 55% of budgetary commitments for three Cohesion Policy programmes over the 2021-2027 period and (ii) a prohibition for the Commission to enter into new legal commitments with public interest trusts and entities maintained by them for EU funding implemented under direct or indirect management, such as Erasmus+ and Horizon.
In the 2022 Council Implementing Decision, the Council assessed the state of implementation of the seventeen remedial measures that Hungary had proposed during the procedure and found that important weaknesses, risks and shortcomings remained, making them inadequate to address the concerns originally identified by the Commission. In particular, the Council concluded that significant weaknesses continued to seriously undermine the adequacy of several remedial measures found as being of central importance to remedy the systemic breaches of the principle of the rule of law identified in Hungary.
