Two New Articles From Project Partners

We invite to read two new insightful articles from Clean Air Action Group (Hungary).

Katalin Tarr explores Hungary’s energy landscape following the recent elections. She examines how decades of state-backed energy subsidies — particularly Viktor Orbán’s “utility price cuts” policy — have created political and economic dependence on artificially low energy prices. While these measures helped households cope with rising costs and became deeply embedded in Hungary’s political culture, they also increased reliance on Russian energy, weakened incentives for energy efficiency, and slowed climate progress.
Read the full article in CEEnergy News.

In another article, Orsolya Kemenyffy examines the EU’s principle of “additionality” — ensuring that European funds complement rather than replace national spending — and how it has gradually weakened over the past 15 years, reducing the impact and credibility of EU investments.

Originally, Member States were required to demonstrate that EU Cohesion Funds added new public investment. However, monitoring and enforcement have since been scaled back, increasing the risks of double funding, weak accountability, and misuse of EU resources.

The article highlights why this issue is especially important today, as EU funding structures become increasingly flexible and complex. Without stronger safeguards, governments may simply relabel existing national policies as EU-funded projects, freeing domestic budgets for unrelated or politically motivated spending. Hungary is presented as a key example, where studies suggest that some EU-funded subsidies delivered limited economic or social benefits.

Explore more in the European Environmental Bureau’s New Leaf.

Photo: Adam Papp/Unsplash