Hungary and Poland Will Not See EU Funds Anytime Soon

Democratic opposition leader Sviatlana Tikhanouskaya is in Vienna ahead of the international conference on Belarus organised by Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg. European Commission sends letters to Hungary and Poland saying that problems with independence of the judiciary, failure to tackle corruption and a deficient public procurement system pose a risk to the bloc’s financial resources; this can be interpreted as an informal step towards triggering the conditionality mechanism which allows Brussels to withhold funds over rule of law concerns. Bulgaria’s victorious ‘We Continue the Change’ party speeds up coalition talks with three other parties, meanwhile, Czechia’s efforts to form government slowed down by President Miloš Zeman. This week we host Rémy Bonny — Executive Director at Forbidden Colours, an EU-wide advocacy group for LGBQTI groups — for a discussion on the recently leaked document which revealed that 76 billion euros in EU funds are being blocked due to LGBTQ+ discrimination in Poland.