Hungary halts subsidized agricultural machinery funding for Republika Srpska

The Progressus Foundation for Sustainable Development, through which the program was implemented, announced on October 16 that it was suspending the realization of the public call for 2026 after the new Hungarian government halted financing. Over two years, the program had disbursed more than twenty-eight million euros from the Hungarian budget, while farmers invested an additional twelve point nine million euros of their own funds.

The public call for 2026, opened on March 13 and closed five days later due to high interest, had received one thousand twenty-five applications from farmers in Republika Srpska and the Brcko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Farmers could expect subsidies ranging from 2,500 to 25,000 euros. Beneficiaries did not receive cash directly, but could exclusively purchase machinery, equipment, and tools manufactured in Hungary, alongside a mandatory personal contribution of at least thirty percent of the investment value and payment of a seventeen percent value-added tax.

Admir Cavalic, a professor at the Faculty of Economics in Tuzla, assessed that it is questionable whether such a model can be considered classic non-repayable development aid, given that it simultaneously served as an instrument to stimulate the sale of Hungarian products. Farmers in Republika Srpska expressed disappointment over the suspension. Slavisa Simojlovic from Bijeljina, who planned to allocate about 8,000 euros of his own money for new machinery, stated that he expects the return of invested funds, while Stojan Marinkovic, president of the Union of Agricultural Producers Associations of Republika Srpska, noted that the support had been significant for local farmers.

Radio Free Europe reported that it received no responses from the Hungarian government, the Progressus Foundation, its partners in Budapest, or the Government and Ministry of Agriculture of Republika Srpska regarding the reasons for the program suspension, the possibility of its continuation, and the fate of the remaining funds from the announced one-hundred-million-euro package. The cooperation between Orban and Dodik also encompassed political support from Budapest for the leadership of Republika Srpska, as well as financial arrangements, including a loan of approximately 126 million euros that Republika Srpska received in 2022 through the Hungarian state Export-Import Bank.