‘Norway owes us’, says Hungary, after Oslo suspends aid to NGOs
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Norway announced on Friday that it would not provide the financial aid allocated to Hungary, as the two countries failed to reach an agreement on the distribution of funds intended for civil society.
Hungary was to receive 2.3 billion Norwegian kroner (220 million euros) from the European Economic Area (EEA) and the Norwegian grant program through which the Scandinavian country and, to a much lesser extent, Lichtenstein and Iceland, which are not part of the EU but are members of its internal market – funding programs in EU countries to reduce social and economic disparities.
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “donor countries have imposed an absolute requirement on all 15 recipient countries that the civil society fund must be administered independently of the authorities.”
“Hungary accepted this, but did not accept the nomination of the best qualified candidate for the task. We were therefore unable to reach an agreement, and under the conditions set out in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which we signed with Hungary in December 2020, no programs will be implemented in Hungary under the EEA and Norway grants program during this period, “he added.
The funding allocated to civil society was around 100 million Norwegian crowns (9.6 million euros).
âNorway owes us this money, because Norway, without being a member of the European Union, participates in the common market, benefits from its advantages; however, at the same time, the country does not have to deal with other excellent EU rules and does not have to bear other burdens, such as paying into the EU budget, “he said. hungry Prime Minister Gergely Gulyás said Thursday.
“So the country owes us that. We have not yet found a method by which the debt could be repaid now, but we are looking for it,” he added.
Budapest has been criticized by the EU in recent years for reforms introduced by conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban which, according to Brussels, aim to weaken judicial independence, the rights of LGBT + people, as well as NGOs.
In December, the European Court of Justice ruled that the Hungarian government was violating EU law by restricting funding for NGOs.
The government said the 2017 law, which imposed an annual limit of ⬠22,000 on foreign donations and required NGOs to list every foreign sponsor giving more than ⬠1,400 per year, was aimed at combating money laundering or the financing of terrorism.
But the ECJ ruled that these were “discriminatory and unjustified restrictions” and that it violated both the free movement of capital and fundamental rights.
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