Hungary, V4 'comply with all EU requirements'

Visegrad Group countries "have nothing to fear" when it comes to the rule of law, and several audits in the past few years show that Hungary complies with all EU requirements, an official of the prime minister's office told a press conference on Thursday in Brussels. The European Commission has proposed steps to protect the European Union's budget from financial risks resulting from member states' failure to observe the rule of law. At a press conference on the 2021-2027 EU budget, Szabolcs Takacs, the state secretary for EU affairs, said that Hungary and the other countries in the Visegrad Group were ready for talks if the mechanism proposed by the European Commission complied with the EU's basic treaties and if the measures applied to all countries equally. But the V4 countries reject the application of double standards on this issue, Takacs said.