FAQ
A European Court of Justice ruling will put Hungary and Poland in their place in the future: For years, the two states have been bending immutable principles of the rule of law. Nevertheless, the countries still collect billions from the EU budget. A judgment from Luxembourg now ensures that this could come to an end in the future.
How far can Victor Orban go? Can the government in Poland continue to erode the independence of the judicial system? And what can the other Europeans actually do about it? A landmark ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has now laid down how an EU member state can be punished if it violates immutable principles of the rule of law.
The “Regulation on the conditionality of the rule of law”, the so-called rule of law mechanism, has been adopted since 2021. It stipulates that the payment of EU funds will be made dependent on whether the payee adheres to the rule of law. Hungary and Poland had appealed against this principle before the ECJ and have now failed. The consequences of the judgment are considerable.
What was that case about?
Poland and Hungary receive billions from the EU budget every year. However, critics accuse both countries of subjugating the judiciary and violating other principles of the rule of law. For years, the EU Commission has been at odds with the governments in Budapest and Warsaw over minority rights, judicial reforms and allegations of corruption. With the rule of law mechanism, the EU had therefore acquired an instrument that is intended to punish violations if this threatens EU money being misused in a country. On the other hand, Poland and Hungary had sued.
What did the ECJ decide?
The judges in Luxembourg dismissed the lawsuits of the two countries concerned and found that the EU did not overstep its competence with the mechanism. The aim of the regulation is not to punish violations of the rule of law – but rather to protect the EU budget, which could be endangered by any violations. They also emphasized that the EU is based on the trust of the member states to respect common values. So the EU must also be able to defend these values. In addition, the regulation provides for a strict procedure in which the countries concerned have several opportunities to comment.
How do Poland and Hungary react to the judge’s verdict?
In Poland, the verdict met with sharp criticism. The EU is changing from an area of freedom to an area where one can unlawfully use force to deprive member states of freedom and limit their sovereignty, said Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro. Hungary also accused the EU of abuse of power. The court made a “politically motivated ruling,” Justice Minister Judit Varga wrote on her Twitter account on Wednesday. “The decision is living proof of how Brussels is abusing its power.”
Will Poland and Hungary really have to give up EU billions in the near future?
That is unclear. The rule of law mechanism has been in place since 2021, but the EU Commission wanted to wait for the judgment of the ECJ judges before putting it into force. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that she would first thoroughly analyze the judgment and its consequences and that specific guidelines for the application of the mechanism would be adopted in the coming weeks.
However, the pressure on von der Leyen increases significantly with the verdict. The European Parliament in particular is pushing the pace. The SPD MP Katarina Barley said that the EU Commission could no longer duck. According to Daniel Freund (Greens), the judgment of Leyen takes the last excuse. And FDP politician Moritz Körner warned: “The rule of law in Europe is on fire.” With every day that she doesn’t use the mechanism, von der Leyen makes herself complicit.
What’s next?
Should von der Leyen give the green light and put the mechanism into effect, at least 15 of the 27 EU countries, which together make up at least 65 percent of the total population, would have to agree to a cut in funds. However, political considerations could speak against rapid action. Warsaw had recently sent signals of relaxation to Brussels. And in Hungary, parliamentary elections are due in early April. Should the EU Commission take action against the right-wing government beforehand, this could be understood as interference in the election campaign and used by the populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban to his own advantage.
But even if the rule of law mechanism still takes some time to be applied, the EU Commission still has another means of exerting pressure on Hungary and Poland. So far, the authority has not released billions from the Corona Aid Fund for both countries due to constitutional concerns.
Sources: with material from DPA, AFP
Source: Stern
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