Hungary faces EU deadline to show it can root out corruption and transform

When Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar ousted the right-wing government of Viktor Orbán in April, he did so on a promise of political renewal, zero tolerance for corruption, and closer ties with Brussels.The world has watched to see how Hungary, which became riddled with crony capitalism in the 16 years that Mr. Orbán and his right-wing Fidesz party ruled the country, will transform its democracy.A major test for the country comes Aug. 31. That’s when the European Union set a deadline for Hungary to meet 27 EU “super milestones” tied to anti-corruption and rule-of-law reforms. Billions in grants are at stake. Why We Wrote This Hungary’s new leader won office in April promising to rid the nation of corruption and bring his country closer to the European Union. He now faces a test of how good a job he has done. “There’s a genuine expectation toward assets being recovered, people who have stolen from the public to be brought to justice,” says Ferenc Bíró, president of Hungary’s Integrity Authority, which was created in 2022 under pressure from Brussels. “One of the key premises in the campaign of the current government was to stop corruption and to recover assets.” Hungary‘s parliament overlooks the Danube River, Aug. 25, 2026, in Budapest. The legislative pace has been rapid ever since Prime Minister Péter Magyar came to power on a pro-European Union and anti-corruption platform. The new government is working to deliver on its campaign promises through breakneck legislative reform and sweeping institutional shake-ups.With his center-right Tisza government winning a two-thirds parliamentary majority, Mr. Magyar has both the mandate and the power to take action.Reforms since Mr. Magyar took power have ranged from Hungary joining the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to the country dismantling the controversial public asset-management foundations and creating new bodies like a National Asset Recovery and Protection Office.The Aug. 31 deadline will determine whether Hungary gets access to EU Recovery and Resilience Facility funding. The milestones include judicial independence, anti-corruption, and public procurement measures. Failure to reform could put at risk €6.51 billion ($7.5 billion) in grants and €3.92 billion in loans. Separately, about €6.3 billion in development funding from the EU has been withheld from Hungary since December 2022. That suspension is under an EU rule-of-law conditionality mechanism that allows the body to withhold funds when it deems a member state to be improperly drawing on the EU budget.Hungary’s corruption problem, as Brussels sees it, is not just about individual scandals or the excesses of the former government. The deeper concern is that state institutions are too weak to prevent public money from flowing to politically connected businesses, especially through public procurement.EU officials have repeatedly pointed to tenders with limited competition, conflicts of interest, opaque spending, weak asset-declaration rules, and doubts about whether prosecutors and other watchdogs are sufficiently independent or effective when politically sensitive cases arise. In Brussels’ view, those weaknesses create a direct risk that EU funds can be misused without such abuse being properly detected or punished.That is why the EU’s demands focus on structural safeguards that will hold the legal and ethical line regardless of who is in power. This means stronger and more independent anti-corruption bodies, more transparent and competitive public tenders, tighter conflict-of-interest rules, better access to public information, and stronger judicial oversight when prosecutors decline to pursue corruption cases. Recovery funding has also been tied to broader judicial-independence reforms.Although these goals were set before Mr. Magyar won office, securing them – a major campaign promise – would amount to a political win. János Bóka poses for a photo at a Danube-facing office reserved for Fidesz members of Hungary’s parliament, Aug. 25, 2026, in Budapest. The mood of public and institutional reckoning is unsettling to some in the ranks of Fidesz. After so many years in power with little meaningful opposition, the party is having to adjust to life in the minority. Former ministers and officials face growing scrutiny over their wealth. They are already wondering who will hold the new enforcers accountable.“They are formulating political expectations toward the police, toward the prosecutor’s service and the courts: What kind of procedures should be opened against whom, and what is the desired outcome of these investigations?” says János Bóka, the head of the Fidesz parliamentary group. “So I believe in this political climate, it is very difficult to talk of independent and impartial processes.”He is also skeptical of the benefits of joining the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, calling its track record “mixed at best.” And he worries that the new Assets Recovery Office in Hungary could be used to keep “certain designated political opponents” under investigation for years without proper judicial review, while paving the way for companies disfavored by the government to be taken over or pushed out of the market.Yet he stops short of opposing investigations outright. “If there is a probable cause and if there are lawful, legal procedures being undertaken against individuals, then of course everybody must face the consequences of [their] actions, including legal and criminal consequences,” he says.