€16.4bn of EU funds to Hungary now conditionally unblocked

HUNGARY - In Brief 30 May 2026 by Istvan Racz

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This was announced at a press conference held by Mme von der Leyen and PM Magyar on Friday, May 29. Of the total amount, €12.9bn represents grants and a further €3.5bn represents low-cost loans. Prior to this announcement, a total of €17.6bn was known as being blocked, so not all, but most of the existing allocations withheld so far will be made available to Hungary. Of this total, €10bn comes from the RRF and another €6.4bn comes from the cohesion and other structural funds. SAFE loans, potentially up to €16.4bn, as far as the preliminary allocation announced in September 2025 is concerned, was not part of the most recent bilateral talks (those have not been blocked, but have not been approved yet either).  Here is our slightly amended summary map on the somewhat complicated status of Hungary's existing allocations of EU funds (corrections have been made to the accounting of the penalties set by the European Court, related to migration policies). This table reflects the status of allocations before the now announced new EU decision.So, what does all this mean? The decision announced by the head the EU Commission is actually a political-level agreement between the EU and Hungary that Hungary will be able to get the above mentioned amounts if- it implements a specific list of legal reforms, most of them by August 31 but some on a longer time horizon, to fight corruption and secure the independence of the judiciary, the media and universities;- it revises and hands in its plan to use RRF funds, which is to get approval from the EU Commission, and then the European Council (probably the Ecofin in this case) no later than in July;- it sets up, details and implements all th...