EU turns up heat in bloc's long-running dispute with Hungary

The executive arm of the European Union, the European Commission, has raised the stakes in the bloc's long-running dispute with Hungary, after it proposed suspending 7.5 billion euros ($7.49 billion) in funding that is due to go to the country as it awaits the introduction of anti-corruption reforms by the government in Budapest.

The EU has long been at odds with Prime Minister Viktor Orban over issues that include the use of funds and the rule of law, and in a largely symbolic vote last week, the European Parliament approved a report that said Hungary could not be considered a full democracy, and accused Orban of creating an "electoral autocracy".

In response to the commission's actions, Hungary's Justice Minister Judit Varga struck a more conciliatory tone, acknowledging that "we still have work to do" to end the stand-off, but insisting the country was "moving in the right direction".

"We are working to ensure that the Hungarian people receive the resources they are entitled to!" she wrote on Facebook.

The commission's budget commissioner, Johannes Hahn, told journalists on Sunday that he was "very confident that …we will see significant reforms in Hungary, which indeed will be a game changer", and that the country had committed to "fully inform" the commission about putting in place the necessary measures, which include the setting up of independent anti-corruption watchdogs, by Nov 19.

Hungary's minister in charge of negotiations with the EU, Tibor Navracsics, also spoke of his confidence that "we can conclude these negotiations before the end of the year and sign the related agreements" so the funds would be released as planned.

Orban was reelected for a fourth term of office this April, and his comments on issues such as refugees have long seen him at loggerheads with the majority of sentiment in the EU.

In a speech in Romania in July, he said "we (Hungarians) are not a mixed race, and we do not want to become a mixed race either", and at the end of August, while the rest of Europe faced up to the challenge of energy security and supply posed by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Hungarian government announced that Russia was going to build two nuclear plants in the country, around the same time Hungary, which gets around 85 percent of its gas from Russia, signed a new gas supply deal with Russian company GazProm.

Hungary has repeatedly raised objections to EU sanctions against Russia, which require the unanimous backing of all 27 member states, and the authorities in Moscow said they welcomed Hungary taking "sovereign positions" on many issues relating to EU affairs.