uThe right-wing government of Najran, under pressure from European Union He introduced a second legislative package aimed at preventing the misuse of EU funds. In essence, it involves the creation of the Integrity Commission. It aims to facilitate the prevention, detection and correction of potential fraud, conflicts of interest, corruption and other irregularities in the use of EU funds. The proposed legislation was posted on the Hungarian Parliament’s website late Friday evening.
A week ago, the government submitted a first draft of a law in this regard. It provides for the inconsistency regulation for members of the Board of Trustees of Public Institutions and the improvement of administrative assistance to the European Union Corruption Investigation Body, Olaf.
After years of allegations of misuse of EU funds and violations of the rule of law, the EU Commission has proposed reducing payments of about 7.5 billion euros from the EU budget to Hungary. Meanwhile, it gave Budapest two months to rectify the violations and thereby exit from the rule of law procedures with impunity.
independent of the government
According to the draft, the new Integrity Commission should operate independently of the government. However, the President of Hungary appoints its president and two deputies on the proposal of the President of the Hungarian Court of Audit. The three people will get a six-year mandate.
A panel of international experts, whose purpose is to advise and monitor the Integrity Commission, is said to have a say in filling these top positions. To fill this committee, the government published an international call for applications on Friday evening. It states, among other things, that this committee must issue “legally binding opinions” on filling the three key positions of the integrity authority.
In addition, the integrity authority should be obligated to report cases of fraud and corruption to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EUPO). Hungary firmly refuses to become part of the EUPO, which has been in operation since 2021 and to which 22 EU countries belong so far. Participation means that the European Patent Office may order investigations in the countries concerned.
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