Speaking at an event marking 80 years of Die Zeit newspaper on Sunday, she said about €6.5 billion (US$7.6 billion) from the EU’s pandemic recovery fund could lapse if Budapest fails to meet conditions by the end of August.

The time pressure is “enormous”, she said, adding she had sent a team of senior officials to Hungary two days earlier to work with the camp of election winner Peter Magyar on meeting required reforms and investments.

The funds were withheld over rule-of-law concerns under outgoing prime minister Viktor Orban.

Von der Leyen, responding to a question on whether Brussels should have taken a tougher line, said the EU had been “extremely strict”, freezing a total of €17 billion – a shortfall she said had weighed on Hungary’s competitiveness and was reflected in the election result.

She added that the EU had to carefully adhere to its treaties when imposing each sanction on Orban’s government.

Von der Leyen said Hungarians “deserve to receive these European funds” once conditions are fulfilled.

Citing years of what she described as systematic obstruction by Budapest, she also backed moving away from unanimity in EU foreign policy decision-making, arguing the bloc must be able to act quickly and ensure “Europe’s voice is heard”.