Amid a raging pandemic in Europe the European Parliament is “once again trying to put its hands on the resources entitled to the Hungarian people”, Justice Minister Judit Varga said on Facebook on Wednesday. [ Ссылка ] Varga said it was “sad” that Hungary’s opposition parties “support and even take part in this malicious machination”.
#eudebates #Hungary #Orban #EU #Poland #VETO
The minister insisted that the EP urging the application of a conditionality mechanism under which member states could be penalised for violating the rule of law it is ” now not only threatening the Commission but also indirectly puts severe political pressure on the judges involved in an ongoing case”.
The European Parliament voted on Thursday to sue the European Commission unless the EU executive quickly applies new legislation that makes access to billions of EU funds conditional on respecting the rule of law.
Poland and Hungary, both under formal EU investigation for breaking the rule of law, stand to lose billions of euros in EU funds when the new regulation is applied.
In force since Jan, 1 but suspended in practice, the legislation is designed to safeguard EU money from misuse in cases where, for example, politicised courts do not guarantee a fair trial for a complaint about a tender for an EU-funded project.
The Commission has said it would only start acting on it once it prepares appropriate guidelines - a process that could be delayed by legal challenges to the regulation from Poland and Hungary.
Those challenges, in the EU court, could take years and the Commission does not want to issue its guidelines until the ruling.
"The longer the Commission waits, the worse the situation will get," said MEP Terry Reintke from the Greens Group.
"This is why we need to see this mechanism applied and the Commission needs to come out with a regulation on the rule of law, before it's too late to reverse the facts on the ground."
The Commission's guidelines are not necessary to apply the new law, but officials said they are part of a deal struck with Warsaw and Budapest, effectively postponing its application until after parliamentary elections in Hungary in 2022.
In a resolution passed by a wide majority of legislators, the European Parliament said such deals went against the Commission's role of the guardian of EU laws.
It gave the Commission until June 1 to write its guidelines or face a lawsuit in the EU's top court.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, during a decade in power, has used public money including EU funds to build a loyal business elite.
In Poland, the opposition and local governments say the ruling eurosceptic and nationalist coalition could be using the billions of euros from the EU's post-pandemic fund to finance their strongholds, while starving opposition regions of cash. The government has not addressed such concerns.
A left-wing columnist finds Hungary’s legal challenge to EU rule of law conditionality rules controversial. A pro-government pundit thinks that the EU should focus on vaccine distribution rather than trying to punish Hungary and Poland.
Hungarian press roundup by budapost.eu
Background information: Last week, Hungary and Poland filed a legal challenge to contest the linking of EU funds to the rule of law. As a result, the application of the new rules will be delayed. In an opinion piece in Magyar Nemzet, Minister of Justice Judit Varga, as she announced the legal challenge, accused the Left of using the concept of rule of law as an arbitrary political tool. In her article, published on the Magyar Nemzet website in Hungarian, English, French and German, Ms Varga wrote that “every state interprets the rule of law in light of their own historical, social and legal development. Accordingly, if we try to impose a one-size-fits-all version of the rule of law for all states, this could easily lead to the violation of national constitutional traditions.”
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