Socialist MEP demands information on EU funds for Covid testing
The Hungarian government has been allocated nearly 900 million forints (EUR 2.3m) in European Union funding to provide "cheap or even free" Covid tests, an MEP of the Socialist-Parbeszed parties said on Thursday, adding that "we do not know how the government has spent the money".
Istvan Ujhelyi said he would send a letter to the prime minister asking for detailed information, later in the day.
Ujhelyi said that the total was part of a 100 million euro package aimed to help EU members provide the required tests to residents in the wake of Covid-related travel restrictions. The EU has also prescribed the purchase price of rapid tests at 13 euros and PCR tests at 40 euros, he added.
The MEP said he wanted to know how much of the 900 million forint total the government has used, and what was its methodology of distributing the tests.
Ujhelyi also asked how the government had used 500,000 rapid tests sent to Hungary last spring under another EU aid programme.