MEPs have called for further steps to prepare a court case against the European Commission over the unblocking of billions of EU funds for Hungary. In December, the Commission released funds to win Hungary’s support for Ukraine. The European Council is due to discuss the financial aid to Kyiv again at an extraordinary summit in February.
European Council President Charles Michel wants to intensify the bloc’s relationship with Central Asia. The new Bulgarian government is about to start work. Albania and Hungary strengthen their cooperation. Germany escapes a fine as the European Commission ends water pollution proceedings.
A doctored photo began circulating on social media in multiple languages in the spring of 2023. It purported to show European Council President Charles Michel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in front of a grey statue with breasts and male genitalia. In fact, the image was altered to superimpose the leaders – from a photo taken in Kyiv in 2023 – against the nude statue found in The Hague.
In an unprecedented move, the EU Commission has proposed freezing the 65 percent of the EU cohesion funds for Hungary, namely 7.5 billion euro, over concerns about rule of law. On the other side, European Commission officials conditionally approved Budapest’s 5.8-billion-euro recovery plan. Now, it will up to the EU member states to decide on both issues that could come with high political stakes.
Brussels has proposed suspending the disbursement of 7, 5 billion euros to Hungary. The EU Commission wants a new media law: Slovenia welcomes the plan which would also have to be applied by candidate countries. Also: EU and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue their migration cooperation and Croatia obtained 8.13 billion euros in EU funds over the last nine years.