Thursday

21st Sep 2023

EU starts unprecedented rule-of-law probe against Hungary

  • Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán and EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen meeting in Brussels last year. Hungary has ignored the commission's concerns for a decade (Photo: European Commission)
Listen to article

In an unprecedented move, the EU Commission on Wednesday (27 April) launched a new probe against Hungary that could result in it suspending EU funds for nationalist prime minister Viktor Orbán's country.

The procedure was finally triggered — for the first time in EU history — over long-standing concerns on corruption, over Orbán's allies syphoning EU money to their pockets, and over the ways Budapest manages and audits the billions of euros of subsidies it gets from the bloc.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"We identified issues that might be breaching rule of law in Hungary and affect the EU budget. Hungary will have to reply to our concerns and propose remedial measures," commission vice-president Věra Jourová said on Wednesday.

Commission officials said that they had identified issues that breach the rule of law, and "that these breaches might affect or seriously risk affecting the EU funds in a sufficiently direct way", which obliges them to launch the probe.

Officials told reporters that they have concerns particularly over how public procurement is done in Hungary, and how it controls and audits EU funds. The EU officials also said the lack of transparency and the lack of independent investigations and prosecution aggravated the problem.

For the past decade, Hungary has ignored repeated concerns raised by the commission— which underpinned the need to launch the procedure, commission officials argued.

What comes next?

The commission on Wednesday wrote to Budapest, notifying it of the launch of the procedure. The Hungarian government now has two months to reply to the EU executive's concerns and detail how it plans to remedy them.

The commission will then have a month to assess the answers, and then the EU member state can have another chance to redress the issues.

If the commission thinks they have not been resolved, it can propose measures, including the suspension of EU money , although a qualified majority of EU governments need to agree to take action. It means support from at least 55 percent of EU countries representing at least 65 percent of the bloc's population.

The procedure could take up to nine months.

The conditionality mechanism has been in force since January 2021 and was aimed at dealing with systematic rule of law concerns over the spending of EU funds.

However, it cannot be used against EU governments for simply steering their country away from democratic standards and EU values. The procedure specifically has to prove a link to the managing of EU funds.

Historic move

The commission and rights campaigners hope this new tool can address systematic rule-of -law concerns, which the executive had struggled to tackle as Orbán managed to dismantle democratic checks and balances over the last decade.

"After 12 years of Viktor Orbán's dismantling of democracy, the EU is finally getting serious. This step is historic," German Green MEP Daniel Freund, who negotiated the mechanism on the parliament's side, said in a statement.

For the first time, the EU is threatening to cut off funds to a member state if it does not put an end to its autocratic course and corruption. This is long overdue. The EU's sponsorship of autocrats will soon come to an end," Freund said.

Implementation of the hard-fought new mechanism was delayed by the commission for months. The European Parliament has threatened to sue the commission if it does not trigger the mechanism.

Hungary and Poland, the two countries under scrutiny for breaching rule of law principles, also challenged the legality of the mechanism at the EU's top court.

However, the European Court of Justice in February dismissed the concerns of Warsaw and Budapest .

The commission sent letters last November to Poland and Hungary over rule-of-law concerns, but only launched this procedure this time against Budapest.

Officials said the high-level corruption and lack of proper fight against corruption in Hungary makes a stronger case against Budapest than Warsaw.

"This is not a political process," a commission official said.

Orbán won a fourth consecutive term at elections earlier this month, after which the commission announced it would soon trigger the rule-of-law mechanism.

MEPs urge EU not to relax policing rule-of-law amid war

European lawmakers debated the lack of progress in the EU sanctions probe against Poland and Hungary, and warned Russia's invasion of Ukraine should not be a reason to turn away from rule-breaking within the bloc.

Opinion

Orbán's 'revenge law' is an Orwellian crackdown on education

On Tuesday, the Hungarian parliament passed a troubling piece of legislation known by its critics as the 'revenge law', which aims to punish and intimidate teachers who dare to defy Viktor Orbán's regime. This law is a brutally oppressive tool.

Latest News

  1. Europe must Trump-proof its Ukraine arms supplies
  2. Antifascism and fascism are opposites, whatever elites say
  3. MEPs back Germany's Buch to lead ECB supervisory arm
  4. Russia to blame for Azerbaijan attack, EU says
  5. Fresh dispute may delay EU-wide migration reforms
  6. MEPs call for extra €10bn to boost EU's long-term budget
  7. No changes to Turkey deal on Nato, Sweden says
  8. Socialist MEP defends own side jobs after voting to ban others

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators, industry & healthcare experts at the 24th IMDRF session, September 25-26, Berlin. Register by 20 Sept to join in person or online.
  2. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  3. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  4. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators & industry experts at the 24th IMDRF session- Berlin September 25-26. Register early for discounted hotel rates
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us