Hungary leader grapples with EU as corruption concerns rise

FILE - In this Friday, April 6, 2018, file photo, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's pauses while delivering a speech during the final electoral rally of his Fidesz party in Szekesfehervar, Hungary. As the Hungarian prime minister’s conflicts with the European Union appear headed to a breaking point, calls are increasing for greater scrutiny of his government’s spending of EU funds. An opposition lawmaker in Hungary has gathered over 470,000 signatures to pressure Prime Minister Viktor Orban into joining the budding European Public Prosecutor’s Office as Orban’s Fidesz party may be suspended or expelled next week from the main center-right group in the European Parliament, it was announced Thursday, March 14, 2019(AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)

FILE - In this Saturday, July 11, 2015 file picture, participants in the 20th Budapest Pride march in front of the Varkert Bazar, the Castle Gardens Bazaar at the foot of Castle Hill in Budapest, Hungary. As the Hungarian prime minister’s conflicts with the European Union appear headed to a breaking point, calls are increasing for greater scrutiny of his government’s spending of EU funds. An opposition lawmaker in Hungary has gathered over 470,000 signatures to pressure Prime Minister Viktor Orban into joining the budding European Public Prosecutor’s Office as Orban’s Fidesz party may be suspended or expelled next week from the main center-right group in the European Parliament, it was announced Thursday, March 14, 2019 (Zsolt Szigetvary/MTI via AP, File)

As the Hungarian prime minister's conflicts with the European Union appear headed to a breaking point, calls are increasing for greater scrutiny of his government's spending of the bloc's funds.

An opposition lawmaker in Hungary has gathered more than 470,000 signatures to pressure Prime Minister Viktor Orban into joining the budding European Public Prosecutor's Office as Orban's Fidesz party may be suspended or expelled this coming week from the main center-right group in the European Parliament.

The EU has allocated Hungary 25 billion euros ($28.3 billion) in the 2014-2020 budget period, but critics say funds are often spent on overpriced or unnecessary projects padding the pockets of the allies of Orban, whose anti-EU campaigns over migration policies and national sovereignty have gotten him into trouble with European People's Party.