#EUFridays by JEF Hungary #37

Brussels Yet to Decide about Freezing EU Funds for Hungary

The European Commission is yet to decide whether Hungary’s new anti-corruption measures are sufficient to prevent a block of European Funds.

In September, the European Commission advised the Council and the European Parliament to vote against the allocation of €7.5 billion from the Cohesion fund to Hungary, due to “systemic irregularities” observed in public procurement processes in the the country. Although, Budapest is confident that EU states in the Council will not vote for the freezing of funds through the rule of law mechanism, Brussels urged member states not to yield to the pressure from the Hungarian government.

The Hungarian Government and Prime Minister, Viktor Orban has vetoed crucial EU decision in recent months, such as the European Minimum Tax, or an €18 billion assistance package to war-torn Ukraine. According to MEPs, who voted for the freeze on November 24, the measures adopted by Hungary are insufficient to tackle the systemic risk of corruption and fraudulent activity EU funds.

Yet, according to József Péter Martin, the head of Transparency International Hungary, Budapest has taken Brussel's recommendations seriously. "In our opinion, this is the only meaningful anti-corruption package of the last 12 years, but obviously one cannot expect that it would completely dismantle Orbán's System of National Cooperation overnight," he said.

Hungary’s €5.8 billion share from the EU’s post-Covid recovery plan was also blocked due to concerns over the rule of law in Hungary, 70% of which will be lost, if Budapest cannot come to terms with the EU before the End of 2022.

Via: Euronews

EU Raising the Prospect of Ban if Twitter Fails to Follow New Legislation

The EU has forewarned the potential of a substantial fine or ban for Twitter, after demanding efforts to comply with new social media legislation.

Elon Musk, Twitter’s new tech-billionaire owner was told he had “huge work ahead” to abide by the EU’s new Digital Services Act, which requires tech firms to tackle problems of social media, including abusive posts and disinformation. Thierry Breton, EU commissioner for the Internal Market told Musk that Twitter will need to increase efforts to “pass the grade” indicating that the platform is non-compliant with the act in its current form. “I welcome Elon Musk’s statements of intent to get Twitter 2.0 ready for the DSA,” said Breton. “I am pleased to hear that he has read it carefully and considers it as a sensible approach to implement on a worldwide basis. But let’s also be clear that there is still huge work ahead, as Twitter will have to implement transparent user policies, significantly reinforce content moderation and protect freedom of speech.” He added that Twitter would have to “tackle disinformation with resolve” and limit targeted advertising, including banning profiling of underage users for advertising purposes.

Breton repeated that potential punishments for breaching the act include a fine of up to 6% of global turnover - around €480 million in Twitter’s case - and/or a temporary suspension of the platform, if non-compliance threatens human life or personal safety, although, suspension is described as a “last resort”.

Since Musk’s takeover of Twitter, 8 700 staff left the company, including employees responsible to oversee content moderation. The resulting fear of relax moderation processes, and the platform’s announcement that it is no longer enforcing its policy against Covid-19 disinformation resulted in large numbers of advertisers leaving the platform. In a blog post published on Wednesday, Twitter stated that its trust and safety team was doing “diligent work” to keep the platform safe from abuse, hateful content and any violation of its rules. It added that the team remained “strong and well-resourced”.

Musk also accused Apple of threatening to remove Twitter from its App Store, and deemed this move as pressure from Apple over content moderation demands towards Twitter. Yet, US Secretary for Treasury, Janet Yellen called the demand for certain content standards for tech giants appropriate and desirable.

Via: The Guardian

Europe’s Financial Burden on LNG Imports May Hinder Green Energy Transition

Europe’s struggle to replace Russian piped natural gas after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to increased European LNG demand and made it only a matter of time before 2022's purchase volumes hit record levels.

However, it is not clear how much LNG will cost during the winter to European Countries and how this will affect the region’s financial power and ambitions to transition its energy system away from fossil fuels. With budgets already in tatters due to costs associated with fighting Covid-19, European governments face paying out € billions more on subsidies and stimulus packages to help industries and households adapt to the severing of trade ties with Russia. Governments have been under particular pressure to rein in power prices, which have surged as utilities were cut from using cheap pipelined natural gas - mainly from Russia -  and forced to use more costly and inefficient imported LNG, coal and other power-generating fuels.

Europe's pace of LNG imports so far has been with a view toward preparing for winter by replenishing stockpiles. Gas inventories in key consumers Germany, the Netherlands, France and Italy have been refilled to 90% of capacity or higher from historically low levels earlier this year. However, with piped supplies from Russia expected to fall further in the months ahead, the region still faces a potential scarcity threat just as the peak heating period sets in. The fourth quarter traditionally marks the high point for LNG imports into Europe as utilities stock up for winter.

The main concerns about Europe's energy transition commitments is that these accumulated costs of LNG imports, alongside other expenses already incurred, drain both the funds available for decarbonisation projects and the level of ambition of the governments responsible for them. Funding has always been a critical component of every energy transition plan, and the reality is that if government and commercial budgets have already been drained by imports of fossil fuels to keep the economy going, there may be little left to finance the transition to a greener energy system.

Via: Reuters