Parliament’s legal service filed the lawsuit on Friday at the request of Speaker of Parliament David Sassoli, a spokeswoman said. The procedure is almost unique: So far, the European Parliament has first sued the EU Commission before the ECJ.
It is expected that the EU Commission will act consistently and implement what Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said in the recent plenary debate on the rule of law, said Sassoli. “Words have to be followed by action.”
The background to this is the EU rule of law mechanism, which has been in force since the beginning of the year. It stipulates that funds from the joint budget can be reduced for EU countries if the money is threatened with misuse of the rule of law. The governments in Hungary and Poland fear that the new procedure will primarily be used against them. You have therefore brought an action against the regulation at the ECJ – the proceedings are still pending.
The EU Commission actually only wanted to take action when the ECJ had decided on the lawsuits from Hungary and Poland. It also provides for an agreement between the heads of state and government. With it, the governments in Budapest and Warsaw were persuaded last year to give up their blockade of important EU budget decisions.
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) had spoken out in favor of waiting for the ECJ decision. At the end of last week, after an EU summit, Von der Leyen made it clear that she would follow this line. You want to wait for the judge’s verdict and consider possible consequences, she said.
The European Parliament had already decided in June to start the procedure for the so-called action for inactivity against the EU Commission and thus to put pressure on von der Leyen’s authorities. In mid-October, the responsible legal committee then voted to actually file the lawsuit. A little later, Sassoli hired the legal service to prepare the lawsuit. The EU Commission always emphasized that the preparations for proceedings were proceeding according to the mechanism and that no case would be lost.
Critics accuse both the Hungarian and Polish governments of influencing the judiciary contrary to EU standards. They also see a danger for the EU budget because, as a rule, national law enforcement authorities and courts are responsible for investigating possible misuse of EU funds.
