Recovery and rule of law are back This WEEK

Previously, the commission's own audit found Babiš in violation of the EU's Conflict of Interests Act, and his company must repay an estimated €11m of EU subsidies received in 2017. Babiš has denied any wrongdoing.

Von der Leyen will be accompanied by commission vice-president Věra Jourová - who hails from the same party as Babiš.

On Sunday (25 July), von der Leyen will be in Austria, and meet chancellor Sebastian Kurz, as part of her recovery plan tour.

The commission meanwhile has not commented on the approval of the Hungarian plan, which has been delayed, beyond the two-month deadline, for the commission's assessment.

Hungarian justice minister Judit Varga said the commission had postposed a planned visit of von der Leyen to Budapest after Hungary's so-called "child protection" law. The commission has said the law is discriminatory towards LGBTIQ people, and launched an infringement procedure last week regarding it.

"It is also unfortunate that the commission confuses ideological positions with financial-professional issues," Varga said in a Facebook post last Friday.

"The Hungarian RRF [recovery and resilience fund] negotiations have progressed smoothly so far. We do not understand, therefore, why another ideological witch hunt is needed. Hungarians are entitled to the RFF funds because they worked for it!," Varga added, saying the Hungary "won't allow LGBTQ activists among our children and that hurts the commission".

The commission last Friday did not comment on whether the commission president did indeed postpone a visit due to this new law.

A spokesperson for the commission said the EU executive's assessment of Hungary's national plan is continuing.

Rule-of-law report

The commission is expected to publish a new annual rule of law report on Tuesday (20 July), which will be the second yearly assessment of the EU executive of the status of rule of law in member states.

It partly supposed to serve as the basis for future action against member states which break EU rules and rule of law principles.

EU justice commissioner Didier Reynders will unveil the report, which is likely to draw criticism from Hungary and Poland.

EU affairs ministers will have an informal meeting in Slovenia on Thursday (22 July), where rule of law, enlargement, and the conference on the future of Europe will be on the agenda.

EUobserver's weekly Agenda will take a summer break. We will be back in September with our overview of what is coming up in the EU.