European Parliament will sue the European Union's executive for unblocking funds to Hungary while trying to persuade the country to drop its veto on aid to Ukraine last year ( www.reuters.com )

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/9928364

The case centres on the European Commission's decision to restore Hungary's access to some 10.2 billion euros in aid last December, while Budapest was blocking 50 billion euros in aid for Kyiv.

Despite the EU criticising Hungary for years for undercutting democratic checks and balances under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the Commission said last year that Hungary had fulfilled the necessary rule of law conditions to get the funds.

Many disagreed.

"EU funds can only be granted if the rule of law is functioning," said Green German EU lawmaker, Daniel Freund. "10 billion euros were released for Viktor Orban without the necessary reforms having been fulfilled."

"This kind of horse-trading - EU money in exchange for a veto - must not be allowed in the EU," he said.

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

My impression is that the European Parliament is aiming to try to create a principled fight that will make for wonderful political drama but keep the EU paralyzed, whereas the European Commission is a lot more worried about the EU functioning effectively.

And this isn't new. The EP has pushed for a standoff over this for some time, and the EC to tone it down.

I'm with the EC on this one. Orban is maybe a bad leader, but the people he's screwing over are Hungarians, who have voted for him to continue to do so. In terms of the EU, the situation there is just not an existential threat and is something that could be dealt with over time. And my own take is that a solution is probably something that should be more-general, not specific to Orbán, like a freedom-of-the-press EU treaty.

Whereas having the EU paralyzed is a really good way to keep the EU ineffective. I don't believe that Brussels is willing, in the EU's confederation form, to remove leaders of member states, and I'm skeptical that even if it were, doing so would be a great idea at this point. It's willing to put political pressure on Hungary, but that's questionably sufficient to push out Orbán. It also creates questions about separation of powers between the state and central government; if the EP is willing to use existing competencies, like the power of the purse, as leverage to act in arbitrary other areas, it makes it hard to argue that the EP is willing to stay in its area of competences, which makes it harder to sell people on granting the EU more competencies, which is important for further political integration. To me, that's a much more important, existential concern for the EU than whether Orbán is dicking over the Hungarian public after they've voted to be dicked over.

Having a political fight with Orbán means that Brussels is going to do enough to make him feel politically threatened and make him be a colossal pain in the ass, but not enough to make the problem go away.

As my dad once told me, "Don't start fights. But if you find yourself in one, be the one to finish it."

The EU's been heading for a political fight that I'm dubious that it's willing to finish.

photoncollector ,
@photoncollector@mastodon.social avatar

@0x815
And so they should. Hungary's Autocracy By Vote is not compatible with the principles of the EU.

Valmond ,

Exact. We're for democracy, not shitty dictators or wannabe dictators.

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