Jonah Redfern Hungary is on track to meet all EU criteria by the end of August needed to unlock roughly €10 billion in frozen recovery funds, according to Budapest and European Commission sources cited by Euronews. Two-thirds of the required milestones have already been completed, the sources say.
The money has been withheld under the EU's rule-of-law conditionality tools, which tie disbursement of Recovery and Resilience Facility funds to specific reform "milestones" a member state commits to in its national recovery plan — typically covering judicial independence, public procurement and anti-corruption safeguards. The Commission assesses compliance milestone by milestone; only once it is satisfied can payment proceed.
A positive Commission assessment does not release the money automatically. It triggers a formal payment process in which EU governments retain oversight, with the Council able to weigh in by qualified majority before funds are disbursed.
Hypothesis: a clean pass this month would send a signal beyond Hungary — to any state under EU budget discipline — that sustained, milestone-by-milestone compliance is the route back to full funding, rather than prolonged confrontation. Supporting this: the sources describe steady progress toward the same deadline, per Euronews. Against this: Euronews does not specify which milestones remain outstanding, nor whether compliance reflects durable reform or procedural box-ticking — a distinction that will only become clear once the Commission publishes its formal assessment.
One open question: whether the Council raises objections before the funds are paid out.
