At the end of his appearance, Guy Verhofstadt turns the gloomy faces in the plenary hall into beaming faces, and his opponent also has to laugh in the middle of this otherwise so serious debate on Wednesday morning. “I have a bad reputation in this house,” says the former Belgian Prime Minister and MEP from the liberal Renew group, “maybe with you too, I don’t know.” Sometimes he also has a bad character and sometimes he is ruthless. “Can I just ask you for one thing? Be a little bit of everything when it comes to Viktor Orbán!” he calls out to Ursula von der Leyen.
The President of the EU Commission unexpectedly faces the members of the Strasbourg Parliament this morning. Less than 24 hours earlier, they had brought forward a resolution that was tough: They were threatening the Brussels authorities with a lawsuit before the European Court of Justice because in December they released a good ten of around 30 billion euros in funds that they were due for violations of the rule of law. A majority of MPs believe this is wrong. After all, it seems as if the Commission appeased Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with billions one day before the EU summit in mid-December so that he would vote in favor of opening EU accession talks with Ukraine.
“Hungary has not met the reform requirements,” says Green MP Daniel Freund
The Commission rejects this reading and insists that the release of the funds was a purely technical decision after Hungary met certain criteria. But von der Leyen is apparently taking Parliament’s threat seriously, otherwise she would not make an unscheduled appearance in the plenary session one day before the vote on the resolution to respond to the allegations herself.
“This is about the fundamental values that bring us together,” she says. All available instruments were used to protect European values and the EU’s financial interests at the same time. However: Hungary passed a law in May 2023 that strengthens the independence of the judiciary and makes political influence on the judiciary more difficult. “That’s what we asked for – and Hungary delivered,” she says. In addition, 20 billion euros remain frozen due to concerns about the rights of sexual minorities, academic freedoms and the rights of asylum seekers. It will stay that way “until Hungary meets the necessary conditions.”
There are doubts as to whether the government in Budapest has really met all the criteria to be able to receive the ten billion euros. Because a lot remains a matter of interpretation. “Hungary has not met the reform requirements,” says Green MP Daniel Freund of the SZ. “The commission hasn’t even taken the time to even look into it.” Instead, she released ten billion euros in an expedited process “to buy Viktor Orbán’s veto.” Friend played a key role in ensuring that the Commission, under pressure from Parliament, used the rule of law mechanism against Hungary.
From the MPs’ point of view, this mechanism – money only in exchange for reforms – is not enough. In the resolution, Parliament calls on the Council to take action to determine “whether Hungary has committed serious and persistent violations of EU values” in accordance with Article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty. This article enables the maximum punishment for an EU member that strays too far from the circle of democratic constitutional states: the heads of state and government can deprive it of its voting rights with a unanimous decision of 26 council members.
According to the Treaty, 22 of them would first have to decide that there is a “clear risk of a serious violation” by a Member State of the values spelled out in Article 2: respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law, as well as the rights of minorities. Manfred Weber (CSU), head of the Christian Democratic EPP in the EU Parliament and champion of a second term for von der Leyen, said on Wednesday morning: “The most important thing I would like to see from the Council is an answer to our question on Article 7.” The heads of state and government have so far lacked the courage to do this.
This will remain the case for the foreseeable future, which is why the Article 7 procedure belongs to the category of pious wishes. Parliamentarians will vote on the resolution in plenary on Thursday. A majority is considered safe. Parliament’s lack of willingness to compromise in dealing with Hungary will also be felt by von der Leyen in the long term – not least from the ranks of her own party family.