Brussels is negotiating with Péter Magyar, Hungary’s incoming prime minister, over a workaround that would keep part of €10bn in frozen Covid-19 recovery funds available beyond an August 31 deadline. Magyar — a pro-EU conservative whose election victory ended Viktor Orbán’s rule — meets European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday.
The funds were frozen under Orbán over rule-of-law concerns. Hungary is also seeking access to a total of more than €30bn, including €7.6bn in regular EU budget money and €17bn in cheap EU defence loans. One option Magyar proposed — a special purpose vehicle to disburse funds beyond the deadline — has been pushed back by Commission officials as too complex for the three-month window. Instead, Brussels wants a disbursement calendar tied to anti-corruption reforms, signed off in Magyar’s first weeks in office. Some of the original 27 “super-milestones” Hungary never met (including pension and procurement reform) may be replaced by faster-deliverable alternatives.
EU money matters: Hungary’s economy grew just 0.4% in 2025, government bond yields are among the highest in the EU, and debt-financing costs run at 4-5% of GDP. Hungary plans to issue almost €10bn of foreign-currency government bonds in 2026, even as the Orbán-era deficit overshoot — two-thirds of the full-year 2026 plan was already used by end-March — forces deep fiscal adjustments. Source: Financial Times, 29 April 2026, Paola Tamma, Henry Foy and Marton Dunai.