By Nora Buli
OSLO, Oct 23 (Reuters) – Norway has reached an agreement with Hungary allowing the restart of a grants scheme halted over disagreements with the previous Hungarian government, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told Reuters on Friday.
Eide, together with his counterparts from Iceland and Liechtenstein, will meet Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orban in Budapest on Monday to sign the €254.1-million ($285-million) agreement under the European Economic Area and Norway Grants scheme.
The deal covers the 2021-2028 funding period, although payments are possible until April 2031, and makes Hungary the fourth-largest of 15 recipients after Poland, Romania and Bulgaria.
There were no payments in the 2014-2021 funding period because of a failure to agree on an independent fund operator with the previous government led by Viktor Orban, Eide said.
“So there has been no transfer from Norway to Hungary in the Norway and EEA grants for 10 years,” he said, but the change in government in Hungary now led by Peter Magyar has made a restart possible.
Norway provides 97% of the funding, which seeks to support cooperation between Norwegian and Hungarian organisations in areas including democracy, rule of law, press freedom, combatting corruption and the green transition.
There is now agreement on control mechanisms to ensure the proper use of funds, Eide said.
“We are very much welcoming the direction of travel of the Magyar government because it is important in my view for the Hungarians, but also for Europe, that the Hungarians are coming back to sort of key European values and principles,” Eide said.
The move by Norway and its partners follows a decision by the European Commission to unlock €16.4 billion of previously frozen EU recovery and cohesion funds thanks to reforms making progress under the new government in Budapest.
($1 = 0.8928 euros)
(Reporting by Nora Buli, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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