The European Commission initiated the suspension of 495 million euros of funding Hungary gets to close the gap between its poorer and better-off regions as part of an excessive deficit procedure. It originally gave the government until September to prove that the budget deficit could be brought to below 3 percent of gross domestic product in a sustainable way.

Hungary will have just over three months in which to make adjustments in the budget in a bid to escape the sanction, Margrethe Vestager Hansen, Denmark's finance minister in charge of the EU presidency's financial affairs, said.

Earlier diplomatic sources told MTI that in the course of the extended debate between the finance ministers momentum had grown to postpone the decision on freezing the funding. The sources, who did not want to be named, said four member states, the UK, Poland, Austria and the Czech Republic, had lobbied to delay the decision. Germany was also inclined to support this view, the sources said.

Hungarian Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy said a "rational decision" had emerged at the Ecofin meeting, "bringing to an end double standards". He told journalists after the meeting that the national interest and EU values had coincided in Tuesday's decision.

"My first impression as a minister was that at least two-thirds of EU member states stood by Hungary's national interests," Matolcsy said, adding that insofar as Hungary is making the necessary adjustments, the decision will be repealed in June. He said ministers had acknowledged the Hungarian government's achievements in reducing its public debt and pursuing a strict fiscal policy."

Source: kormany.hu