EU Parliament parties urge 'no money for Orbán's Hungary'

The letter scolded Orban's nationalist government for rolling back rights for LGBTI people and curtailing democratic rights —for instance the freedom of expression of teachers, and their right to strike.

The five parties, which represent 530 MEPs in total in the 705-member European Parliament, also criticised a new law claimed to update whistleblower protection rules — but which would allow citizens to anonymously report individuals deemed as contesting the "constitutionally recognised role of marriage and the family".

That draft law was approved by Hungary's parliament on 11 April, but country's president has not signed it into law yet.

The letter called on the commission to hold back subsidies for Orbán's government until liberal democratic principles are met.

"In our view, it clearly makes it impossible to give a positive assessment of the first payment under the Recovery and Resilience Plan," the letter of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), Socialists & Democrats, Renew Europe, the Greens/EFA and The Left said, referring to the official name of the Covid-19 recovery fund.

Fifteen EU countries, including France and Germany, have already started court proceedings against Orbán's government for what they see as discriminatory LGBTI policies.

That particular law has outlawed the depiction of homosexuality or divergent gender identities to minors in media content. A ruling on that at the European Court of Justice is not expected until next year.

The parties' warning came as on Monday morning Hungary's justice minister, Judit Varga, and EU justice commissioner Dider Reynders met to discuss Budapest's ongoing judicial reform plans, which are a bid to try to unblock billions of EU funds.

Talks ended without a major breakthrough, AP reported, although Varga did say on Facebook that technical agreement was reached on judicial matters.

If the commission gives its green light the Hungarian parliament could pass the legislation during May, helping to unblock some of the EU funds held up over Budapest's democratic backsliding.

A commission spokesperson said "technical discussions have progressed well regarding the judicial reforms", and that the "further internal steps will follow for the commission to analyse the progress made".

The judicial conditions are part of the 27 "milestones" blocking the disbursement of the €5.8bn of EU funds stuck in Hungary's recovery fund, but are also a precondition for getting the cohesions funds, held up over corruption and rule of law concerns.

Rare dissent

Last Friday, in a rare display of dissent, Hungary's president Katalin Novák, previously a minister in Orbán's government, sent the law allowing the anonymous reporting of same-sex families back to parliament.

Novák wrote in a letter to the speaker of Hungary's parliament, himself a core member of Orbán's Fidesz party, that she believed elements of the draft law "may serve to increase mistrust between members of the community".

Hungary's constitution, approved by the two-thirds parliamentary majority of Orbán's right-wing populist Fidesz party in 2011, outlaws same-sex marriage, and the government has prohibited same-sex couples from adopting children.