The European Commission has proposed unlocking €4.2 billion in previously frozen cohesion funds for Hungary, marking another major step in Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s efforts to restore access to European Union funding, according to Bloomberg. The funds were withheld under the EU’s rule of law conditionality mechanism because of concerns over corruption, public procurement and other institutional safeguards during the previous government of Viktor Orbán. The Commission said Hungary’s new government has taken important steps to strengthen the rule of law and protect the EU’s financial interests. The proposal, announced on September 23, still requires formal approval by the EU Council, meaning the money has not yet been fully released.
The €4.2 billion forms part of a broader €16.4 billion package that Brussels agreed in principle to make available to Hungary following reforms under Magyar, who took office after defeating Orbán in the April 2026 election. The wider package includes €10 billion from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, with the Council already approving Hungary’s revised recovery plan in July, allowing for approximately €6.5 billion in grants and €3.5 billion in loans. Brussels has also moved to restore Hungary’s access to Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe, reopening programmes from which Hungarian students and researchers had been restricted.
For Hungary, the funding represents an important source of investment at a time when the government is seeking to revive economic growth, improve public services and strengthen the competitiveness of domestic companies. Magyar has pledged to use recovered EU funds for economic development and public investment, while the European Commission has tied access to the money to reforms covering areas including public procurement, anti-corruption safeguards, conflicts of interest and prosecutorial effectiveness. The latest proposal therefore strengthens Budapest’s financial relationship with Brussels, although the remaining approval process and other unresolved EU funding restrictions mean the normalisation of Hungary’s access to European funds is still ongoing.
