Good afternoon and welcome to our press point. We have the great pleasure of the President of the European Commission and the Prime Minister of Hungary, Péter Magyar.
The 12th of April will stay in our memory for a long time. The Hungarian people made clear that Europe and democracy are at the heart of their choice. Hungary has taken a decisive step, and it is a shining day for European democracy. The Hungarian Parliament has shown that it is ready to form a government that will take concrete steps to speed up the economic recovery, to fight corruption, to strengthen the rule of law, and to make concrete progress. We will not take shortcuts; we will address all issues, and we will work hand in hand for the good of Hungary and Europe.
My first point is on structural reforms for Hungary, much needed to fight corruption and state capture in Hungary, and also to unlock billions of euros of funding that have been frozen. The architecture is clear: Hungary addresses corruption and rule of law concerns. Indeed, Hungary has decided to join the European Public Prosecutor's Office to safeguard European funds in the future. We will strengthen public procurement law to curb the misuse of taxpayers' money, and we will address the structures that carry high risks of state capture, including public interest trusts. This signals Hungary's commitment to reforms for the benefit of Hungary and reforms for the benefit of the European Union.
My second point is on investments. The teams have worked hard, and the hard work has really paid off. We have agreed on very concrete projects that will support key sectors such as, for example, energy, housing, and also transport, and small and medium enterprises, just to name a few. These funds are subject to the reforms that are being adopted and the investments implemented. I am very happy to announce today that we can unlock 10 billion euros for Hungary under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, on the topic of funds, 4.2 billion euros, and on the points of rule of law.
We also made great progress on the protection of fundamental rights in Hungary, not least on academic freedom. Hungary will phase out the public interest trusts, the PITs, and pass legislation to address concerns about conflict of interest and integrity rules. This means that 10 billion euros of funds for Hungary will be unlocked, and the protections are dire. Finally, a special word on Erasmus, an iconic program, one of the trademarks of the European Union. Erasmus is what Europeans love: diversity is our strength, and Hungarians benefit from it. Hungarian students benefit from it.
To conclude, a great deal of work has been achieved in a very short time, and the markets are already taking notice. Investors' confidence is returning, and trust is being rebuilt. Thank you very much. On a personal note, I am grateful to you personally and to all of your teams, who have made a tremendous effort.
You know, we just started the negotiations five weeks ago, and now we are here. Just after three weeks, the new Hungarian government was formed, and we have already achieved a historic breakthrough and agreement. It is really, really important for the Hungarian people, for my beloved country, Hungary, and for all the European citizens. And I would also like to thank my colleagues, all of the Hungarian ministers and colleagues in the government, who have been working very, very hard all the days, all the nights. There were some points when I thought it was hopeless, and yet we succeeded. I would like to send a few messages to the Hungarian people.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear Hungarian compatriots! One of our most important commitments during the election campaign was that we would bring home and unlock the many thousands of billions of forints in EU funding that belongs to the Hungarian people, to Hungarian companies, to Hungarian public services, to healthcare, education, transport, and the social sphere. For a long time we listened to the previous government tell us what could not be done and why. They constantly lied to the Hungarian people, and they lied about the European Union. Viktor Orbán and his government lied about the European institutions, and they lied about the real reason the EU funds were frozen.
They claimed that the reason the Union would not hand over the many thousands of billions of forints owed to the Hungarian people was that Hungary, the Hungarian government, held a different position on illegal migration, on the Russian-Ukrainian war, or on certain human rights issues. We, and I myself, made it clear even during the election campaign that the real reason the European institutions, the European Union, were not in a position to hand over this money was corruption. It was a level of corruption that for a long time was inconceivable in the European Union and in Hungary as well. It was inconceivable that a prime minister and his family could be directly connected to hundreds of billions, or even thousands of billions, of forints in corruption.
I have said from the very beginning that if Hungary accepts the anti-corruption measures, if we establish the National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, if we strengthen the powers of the integrity authority, if we adopt conflict-of-interest rules like other countries, then this money will come. And lo and behold, we did nothing more. We adopted the anti-corruption measures together with the Commission, and the measures mentioned by the President as well. And that was enough, and a few weeks were enough, to reach an agreement, to conclude a political agreement on this enormous amount of EU funding.
Three weeks, three or four weeks were enough to achieve what Viktor Orbán and his outgoing government could not achieve in three or four years, or perhaps did not want to achieve. We do not know. That is already part of history, just as Viktor Orbán is part of history. History has better and more beautiful parts, and time will tell in a few decades where he belongs. Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached an agreement with the President and with the European Commission on every issue that was raised, which will enable the Hungarian people to access the resources that belong to them.
On April 12th, as the President also mentioned, the Hungarian people gave an unprecedented political mandate to the new Hungarian government, the Tisza government. They also gave us a mandate, among other things, to bring this money home and to finally get the Hungarian economy going again. That Hungarian economy which has been unable to grow for four years, the economy where Europe's highest inflation was recorded, where every day we struggle to keep public services from collapsing. We will bring this money home, as we promised, for the reconstruction of Hungary, for restarting the economy, for restoring and developing public services, and for strengthening the competitiveness of Hungarian companies, small and medium-sized enterprises.
Our goal was always clear, both in the informal and in the official negotiations. We negotiated very hard. Perhaps the President can confirm this. We fought for every euro, as I indicated at the beginning, because we need all of it. We negotiated hard even tonight, and then we started again in the early morning, and we succeeded. And I believe this is our joint success. It is the joint success of Hungary and the European Union, of the European institutions.
We held detailed negotiations. And I can say that, indeed, as the President also said, overall, based on today's agreement, we have agreed on the release of 16.2 billion euros. I say this to my compatriots: even with the strengthening forint exchange rate, this is about 6,000 billion forints. This is 13% of the Hungarian annual budget, just so that I can convey the magnitude.
Of course, one eye is crying and the other is smiling, because it is very sad that what the European Commission and the President asked for, in the interest of European and Hungarian taxpayers, could have been fulfilled all along. If the Orbán government had really governed in the interest of the Hungarian people, if it had really wanted to get the economy going, if it had really wanted to develop the collapsing Hungarian healthcare system, if it had really wanted to buy new railway carriages instead of the ones that keep catching fire, it could have done so. Because today we proved that there were no ideological issues or expectations here in Brussels.
It was simply a matter of combating corruption in the best possible way. And I can also say that perhaps we will even exceed the Commission's expectations in this regard. In several places, we will adopt anti-corruption measures that are even stricter than what was requested. And indeed, I had the honor of handing over to the President Hungary's official application to join the European Public Prosecutor's Office. We hope that the accession process will be completed as quickly as possible; it will not be up to us to delay it.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you what we have established. The President touched on this in part, and I do not want to repeat too much of it, but what is important is that we have accepted the reform of the asset declaration system, because the current asset declaration system was good for nothing. From it, not even the fact emerged that one of Viktor Orbán's ministers, who claimed to be an inventor and thereby to earn enormous revenues every year, could not even add two plus two. So it is clearly in the interest of the Hungarian people that we establish a very strict asset declaration system, and not only establish it, but also make these declarations verifiable.
Moreover, there should even be consequences if someone deliberately reports false information, whether it is the President of the Republic, a Member of Parliament, another public dignitary, or any fellow citizen performing public duties. We are ready with the legislative drafts, a rather substantial package. And there is one point in it, just so you know, that anyone who deliberately reports false data in their asset declaration can be punished with up to two years in prison.
As I have said, we are joining the European Public Prosecutor's Office. We proclaim zero tolerance towards corruption. We will eliminate the opportunities for public assets to be diverted into the hands of power, or of oligarchs, or of family members, at the expense of the Hungarian people. Ladies and gentlemen, as the President also mentioned, this 16 billion, 16.4 billion euros has several components. And if you will allow me, I will describe a few of them. Of this, 4.4 billion euros is cohesion funding, which is spendable, and which the Hungarian government can use for transport development, healthcare investment, social investments, environmental investments, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises.
2.2 billion euros is linked to education, primarily to the development of higher education and research and development. In addition, several billion euros can be claimed for projects and investments that have already been completed or are underway. I look at the Minister of Finance, András Kármán, on whose face a smile immediately appears, because this means that with these several billion euros, the room for maneuver of the Hungarian budget increases.
And of course I could also look at the other ministers, because it means that from this released amount we will be able to make further investments in the interest of the Hungarian people and Hungarian companies. We are talking about almost 4 billion euros here. In addition, we can allocate another 5.5 billion euros, nearly 600 billion forints, to electricity network development, grid development, which is important because we can continue installing solar panels, wind farms can be built, and we can create storage capacity and balancing capacity.
At the end of the day, this will contribute to Hungarian companies, whether small and medium-sized enterprises or large companies, and to Hungarian households, getting energy, primarily electricity, more cheaply. This is important because currently Hungarian companies receive electricity at the most expensive prices, most of the time, in all of Europe. We must change this in any case, and with this we will also be able to increase the competitiveness of Hungarian companies.
If I look at Minister Dávid Vitézy, the Minister of Transport, the biggest smile appears on his face when he sees that we will be able to allocate nearly 2 billion euros for the procurement of new railway rolling stock, new suburban trains, and local railway rolling stock. This will be a huge step forward, especially compared to the previous government and to János Lázár, who destroyed Hungarian transport, who instead of procuring new railway rolling stock leased 30-year-old carriages, which are the ones catching fire nowadays, the ones leased by the previous government. We have decided that instead, with the help of the European Union, we will buy new railway rolling stock.
This will be visible, dear Minister, within a few years on the Hungarian intercity lines and in the Budapest-area public transport. In my view, this is very, very good news. We have also agreed on digital technology developments and on launching support programs for small and medium-sized enterprises worth several billion euros. These include both grants and credit components. Overall, once again, we are talking about 16.4 billion euros, which in total is more than 10% of the current Hungarian budget, approximately 13%.
I believe this is truly a historic day, certainly for Hungary. If this much money can be obtained here, then I would be happy to come to Brussels more often. The truth is, many people are surprised, but I really love this city, because my family and my three wonderful sons spent nine years here, and I always return with joy. Yesterday there was a successful meeting with the NATO Secretary General and the Prime Minister of Belgium, and I also discussed with the President that my first official Council participation will be on June 18th at the European Council meeting.
Ladies and gentlemen, economic growth, competitiveness, support for small and medium-sized enterprises, investments, stimulating job creation, easing the housing crisis. I forgot to mention that we will be able to spend huge sums from this money on easing the Hungarian housing crisis, on building a rental housing program. This means not only the money we receive here, perhaps 600, 700, 800 million euros for this, but also, because of the multiplier effect and the inflow of private money, this could be four or five times as much. So thousands of apartments or even dormitory places can be built from this.
Transport developments, a stable budget, and the fight against corruption. I am very, very grateful. I will be honest, there will certainly be a question on this, so perhaps I will preempt it. The negotiations with the European Commission, with the Commission leadership, with the President, concerned exclusively the unfreezing of Hungarian EU funds and the bringing home of EU money. Today there was no other topic between us. Certainly not with regard to these funds. We know exactly that this is a political agreement, a very strong signal, and that we have a lot of work to do. We have to adopt a lot of legislation.
But I have good news: today Hungary has the most stable government in the entire European Union. I believe we hold 71% of the seats in the Hungarian National Assembly. So even if there were an influenza epidemic, we would still be able to adopt these laws. And if we look at the latest opinion polls, if there were an election today, perhaps we would already have too many seats, and people would suspect that there is not such a great rule of law after all. So we will not hold an election in Hungary for a while, because an opposition is needed.
Thank you very much for being here, and for being able to reach such a truly historic agreement. We will work together with great joy for the future and competitiveness of Hungary and the European Union. Thank you very much, Madam President.
Thank you very much. I will also answer quickly. The President has already stated the numbers, so I will not repeat them. Obviously there is a breakdown of this, which I also tried to explain, but I think we will have time to discuss it in detail later. What I can say is that the failed, ousted government talks a lot about this migration pact. The President can confirm that Viktor Orbán sat here in Brussels for quite a long time. He participated in the meetings of the European Councils for 16 years. Sometimes he was sent out for coffee, but basically he participated. Sometimes he delegated another prime minister, but basically he was here, and I think it was noticeable when he was here.
Now he and his government had every opportunity to prevent the adoption of the migration pact, if he did not like it, if he did not consider it useful. He did not succeed. Viktor Orbán has achieved essentially nothing in recent years, because he vetoed for the sake of vetoing, and therefore he did not have many allies left. And when legislative dossiers came to the EU where unanimity was not required, he could not find allies, or enough allies, beside him, and he could not substantively influence the legislation. Not even when he was perhaps right.
But let us not forget one thing. This migration pact, which the President also mentioned, was adopted during Viktor Orbán's government, during his Brussels tours. It was his responsibility to prevent it. It was adopted, and it is a directly applicable legislative package. And what Orbán and his people forget to say at home, while their propaganda is already quite on the verge of collapse, though a few of the old guard's hard titans still fight as an underground movement, is that this legislative package contains a lot of tightening measures.
Indeed, Viktor Orbán was right around 2015 regarding illegal migration, and the position of the Union and of many capitals has changed a lot regarding illegal migration. And precisely for that reason, the migration pact contains tightening measures in many areas, including more effective protection of the EU's external borders. And what the propaganda of Orbán and his people usually talks about regarding this pact, the name by the way is not very fortunate, and when I also participate in the legislation I will give advice on how to give less frightening names to legislative packages, but that is a detail.
What I can say is that this is about what happens if there is again a mass migration, a migration wave similar to 2015, and how the member states act. And there are several options for how they act. Those who want to can take in migrants; those who do not can pay. And those who cannot even do that, whether because of their constitutional setup or because of political will, can help member states protect the EU's external borders. This is what it is about, and it was decided with Viktor Orbán's vote and with the Orbán government's vote, and now they talk about it as if it were the devil.
I can only confirm here in Brussels, as we have said many times, that under the new Hungarian government there will be equally clear and strict rules in Hungary regarding the protection of our external borders, because these are not only Hungary's borders but also the EU's external borders, the external borders of the Schengen zone. There will be no migrant camps in Hungary. Orbán and his people planned such a thing, by the way, with secret decrees, but they no longer had time to implement it.
And unlike Viktor Orbán, I do not know how well this is known here in Brussels. During his government, Viktor Orbán released 2,200 convicted human traffickers from Hungarian prisons. Viktor Orbán released human traffickers from Hungarian prisons who had attempted, or even succeeded, in bringing masses of illegal migrants into the territory of the European Union. That is how committed a fighter he was against illegal migration.
The failed prime minister cited prison overcrowding in Hungary as the reason. I also send him a message from here in Brussels: he does not need to worry, because under the new Hungarian government there will be no prison overcrowding in Hungary. If necessary, we will build new prisons, and we will not release either political criminals or human traffickers from Hungarian prisons. That is what I can say. Thank you very much.
