Judges in Luxembourg on Wednesday dismissed lawsuits from Hungary and Poland, paving the way for the so-called rule of law mechanism to be applied. This makes it possible to cut EU funds in the last step for the affected countries.
Specifically, it is about the “Regulation on the conditionality of the rule of law”, which has been in force since the beginning of 2021. Its purpose is to ensure that violations of the rule of law, such as the separation of powers, no longer go unpunished if they threaten to misuse EU funds in a country. In such cases, the EU Commission can propose cutting payments from the joint EU budget.
Poland and Hungary filed suit
Poland and Hungary saw themselves as being particularly in the focus of the new instrument and therefore complained to the ECJ. The EU Commission under Ursula von der Leyen wanted to wait until the verdict before using the mechanism. It also provides for an agreement by the heads of state and government in summer 2020, with which the governments in Budapest and Warsaw were persuaded to give up their blockade on important EU budget decisions. The European Parliament, on the other hand, has been urging the EU Commission to use the mechanism for months.
It is unclear whether and how quickly the EU Commission will trigger the mechanism. On the one hand, it still has to finalize the guidelines for the application of the instrument, taking into account the judgement. There are also political considerations: Poland has recently given cautious signals of a rapprochement with Brussels. In Hungary, parliamentary elections are due in early April. Should the EU Commission trigger the rule of law mechanism beforehand, this could be understood as interference in the election campaign.
Source: Nachrichten
