The unscruplulous European Commission would not net Hungary build roads all by itself, so it has decided to contribute a handsome sum of money for the construction of a section of the M8 expressway. And while it’s at it, it will also support the improvement of wastewater collection systems in the country.
The Cohesion Fund is investing EUR 218.5 million in two projects in Hungary. EUR 203.5 million will finance the construction of a section of the M8 expressway in the country, which will contribute to better connecting Hungary and Graz, in Austria. EUR 15 million will help improve the wastewater collection systems in Budapest and the city of Budaors, the EU executive announced on Tuesday.
These two Cohesion Policy projects clearly show the added value of the EU in Hungary. With major investments in road and water infrastructure, the EU is actively working to boost regional development and growth in the country, while improving the citizens' everyday lives
, remarked fiendishly Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Creþu.
The M8 expressway project will better link the Hungarian Vas region with the Austrian state of Burgenland. It will contribute to completing the core Trans-European Transport Network. The road should be completed in 2021.
Then, some 33,000 people will benefit from an improved wastewater system in Budapest and Budaörs, with 1,410 homes newly connected to the network, the EC added.
This project, in which the EU already invested EUR 61 million in the previous EU budget period, should be operational in June 2020.
For the period 2014-2020, the EU is investing EUR 25 billion worth of European Structural and Investment Funds in the country, i.e. an average of EUR 2,532 per Hungarian over the seven-year period.
Orbán facing expulsion from EPP family
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán crossed a "red line" when his government targeted Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European People's Party (EPP) said.
Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party is a member of the EPP along with Juncker, launched anti-migration campaign posters last month featuring the European Commission president and billionaire philanthropist George Soros. The campaign is accusing Brussels of pushing migration policies that threaten Hungary’s security.
“The European People’s Party is a big family, which can have its differences. But there is a limit and Viktor Orbán overstepped the red line," EPP President Joseph Daul said in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt published Tuesday.
Daul also told AFP Monday that the EPP will discuss on March 20 whether to exclude or suspend Fidesz after he received requests to do so from 12 member parties representing nine countries.
There are soon to be 13 parties that urge expelling Fidesz from the EPP, as MEP Sean Kelly, the leader of Ireland’s four Fine Gael MEPs, announced he would write to the party to propose the expulsion at the March 20 conference.
PM Viktor Orbán, the self-proclaimed champion of what he calls “illiberal democracy", has pledged to put up new anti-migrant posters, despite hopes in his centre-right EU family that he might "apologise and put an end" to the campaign.
"In the next phase our party campaign will begin and then you will find someone else on the posters: Mr Timmermans. We will send Mr Juncker into retirement and Mr Timmermans will replace him on our posters," Orban told German newspaper Die Welt in an interview on Saturday (2 March).
