Finance
Funding for Hungary: EU Parliament sues Commission
Through the lawsuit, Parliament wants to clarify whether the Commission’s decision to release frozen EU funding worth around ten billion euros for the country despite ongoing criticism of violations of the rule of law in Hungary was lawful. photo
© Jean-Francois Badias/AP/dpa
Was the recent release of EU funding to Hungary legal? The EU Parliament has doubts and is taking the matter to the ECJ. The majority of Ursula von der Leyen’s party friends remain silent.
The European Parliament is suing Ursula von der Leyen’s EU Commission over the controversial release of funding for Hungary. A spokesman for Parliament President Roberta Metsola confirmed this on Thursday after a meeting between her and the chairmen of the parliamentary groups in Strasbourg. Previously, on Monday evening, Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee voted with a large majority in favor of the lawsuit before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg.
The commission announced that it would defend its decision in court. It believes it acted in full compliance with EU law, a spokesman said. “Hungary had provided all the evidence requested by the Commission regarding the independence of the Hungarian judiciary.”
Despite ongoing criticism of violations of the rule of law in Hungary, the Commission released frozen EU funding worth around ten billion euros for the country. Parliament wants to use the lawsuit to clarify whether the decision was legal.
Extremely rare occurrence
It is an extremely rare occurrence for the EU Parliament to take the Commission to the ECJ. Parliament sued von der Leyen and her team in 2021 because they initially did not apply a then new regulation for punishing violations of the rule of law in EU states. However, parliament withdrew the lawsuit after the authority began using the so-called conditionality regulation against Hungary in April 2022. It makes it possible to freeze EU funds intended for Hungary if there is a risk of the funds being misused due to violations of the rule of law.
Von der Leyen’s party friends made no obvious attempts to prevent the lawsuit. Von der Leyen was officially nominated by the EPP as a candidate for a second term as President of the EU Commission just last week. EPP circles said on Thursday that opposing the lawsuit could have been misinterpreted as support for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. In principle, one would have wanted to carry out a more detailed legal examination before filing a lawsuit.
Harsh accusations against von der Leyen
Political opponents have tried to use the proceedings in recent days to inflict political damage on von der Leyen. “The indictment is more than embarrassing for von der Leyen. Von der Leyen is following in Donald Trump’s footsteps, who has to run his presidential campaign from the dock,” mocked the leader of the FDP in the European Parliament, Moritz Körner.
The left-wing parliamentary group leader Martin Schirdewan made similarly harsh comments: “Von der Leyen transferred frozen money to the autocrat Orban in order to buy his vote in the council.” In order to protect citizens and democratic values, Parliament is defending itself against this “haggling by the President and EPP top candidate”.
Unclear prospects of success
It is unclear how successful the lawsuit will be. Parliament’s legal service recently did not come to a clear conclusion in a report on the chances of a lawsuit. First, Parliament must prove that the Commission made mistakes when issuing the decision, according to the paper available to the German Press Agency. It is expected that “the Commission will put forward a solid defense” and rely on its discretion.
The legal opinion concludes that a lawsuit would raise several questions that have not yet been addressed by the ECJ. This makes it difficult to predict how the Court would rule in such a case. A verdict in the case is unlikely to come until next year at the earliest, long after the European elections scheduled for June and the decision on von der Leyen’s possible second term in office.
Critics of the lawsuit decision therefore see considerable risks. The approach will enable Orban to continue portraying himself as a victim of a political campaign by parliament. In addition, if the lawsuit fails, there is a risk of significant damage to Parliament’s image. The hope expressed that the member states could subsequently withdraw powers from the Commission through a complicated decision-making process is completely unfounded – especially because the decision to release the funds was supported by a large majority of the EU member states.
MEPs speak of blackmail
However, MEPs – including those from the German government parties SPD, Greens and FDP – criticized the release of the money at the time and accused von der Leyen of allowing herself to be blackmailed by Hungary. Orban had previously announced that he would block the start of EU accession negotiations with Ukraine and a billion-dollar EU aid package for the country attacked by Russia. The agreement to start the accession negotiations took place at the summit in December. The aid package was decided at a special summit at the beginning of February.