Commission proposes €4.2 billion for Hungary and full Erasmus access

The Council has one month to decide on lifting the 2022 measures, which would also restore Hungarian access to Horizon Europe.

Hungarian students and researchers would regain full access to Erasmus and Horizon Europe under a European Commission proposal made on 23 September. The plan would also return €4.2 billion in cohesion funding to Hungary. The Commission proposed lifting the measures it took under the conditionality regulation. The Council now has one month to decide on lifting the measures adopted in 2022.

Sophie Wilmès said the contrast with the delegation's 2025 visit is striking. A delegation of the European Parliament's civil liberties committee visited Budapest from 26 to 28 October 2026. She led the rule of law mission. Wilmès welcomed the scale and speed of the reforms since the new government took power. She named the end of the state of emergency, the abolition of the Sovereignty Protection Office and Hungary joining the European Public Prosecutor's Office.

Wilmès said open questions remained on judicial independence and the prosecution of high-level corruption. She named media freedom and fundamental rights as further unresolved areas for the delegation. The delegation took no position on the Article 7 procedure opened in 2018, and no decision has been taken on closing it either. Its future, Strik and Wilmès said, remains an open question.

In May 2026, Hungary secured the release of around €16.4 billion in frozen EU funds after Prime Minister Péter Magyar agreed to a reform package set by Brussels. The government says its constitutional changes dismantle the "illiberal" system built under Orbán and restore judicial independence. In July, Fidesz and Kinga Gál called the changes a "political vendetta" and said the term limits on the Prime Minister violate democratic principles. Fidesz also said the retroactive measures infringe voters' rights and accused EU institutions of hypocrisy.

The delegation will now present its conclusions to the civil liberties committee in Brussels. Parliament has scheduled a plenary debate on the delegation's report for 24 November 2026. A vote on a resolution is set for December 2026, after the debate has taken place in the chamber. The vote follows Parliament's adoption of the text in single reading on 8 October 2026, under procedure 2026/2868(RSP), with a recorded vote.