EU budget
ECJ ruling: will violations of the rule of law soon become expensive?
Will Poland and Hungary soon receive less money from the EU budget? Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Poland and Hungary are opposing the EU’s new rule of law mechanism. Now is the day of decision. It’s not just about principles, it’s also about a lot of money.
Will Hungary and Poland soon be cut off from EU funds? The European Court of Justice could today pave the way for the application of a new regulation to punish violations of the rule of law in the EU.
Should the judges declare the so-called rule of law mechanism to be legal, corresponding proceedings will soon be instituted against countries such as Hungary and Poland. Ultimately, these also provide for the possibility of states cutting funds from the EU budget.
Specifically, the ECJ proceedings are 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.
Poland and Hungary are suing
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.
At the same time, the EU Commission repeatedly emphasized that preparations for procedures based on the mechanism were under way and that no case would be lost. The European Parliament, on the other hand, has been putting pressure on for a long time and has even sued the EU Commission before the ECJ for its hesitancy – but the proceedings are still ongoing.
So will Poland, Hungary and possibly other countries soon receive less money from the EU budget? Both states get billions from the common budget every year. Governments also use the money to win the favor of their voters. At the same time, critics accuse them of influencing the judiciary contrary to EU standards.
cut funds
However, the cuts in funding will not happen that quickly, even if the ECJ gives the green light. First of all, there is a formal argument against this: the EU Commission wants to finalize the guidelines for the application of the procedure, taking the judgment into account. The political questions are probably more important. With regard to Hungary, for example, there are the parliamentary elections in early April – and the consideration of whether the authority would like to take a step before this election that could be understood as campaign interference.
Warsaw recently sent signals of relaxation to Brussels. President Andrzej Duda proposed the dissolution of the highly controversial Disciplinary Chamber, which has been causing disputes with the EU Commission for years. In addition, Poland settled a dispute with the Czech Republic that had previously dealt with the ECJ. The EU Commission has so far only expressed reservations about these developments, insisting on concrete action – and not just on announcements.
But even if the authority were to take action soon – it would still take a long time for Hungary, Poland or other countries to cut money, simply because of the lengthy process.