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Despite threats from Hungary and Poland, most EU countries have initiated procedures to punish violations of the rule of law within the Union. A corresponding proposal from the German Presidency of the Council of the EU received necessary support in Brussels on Wednesday, according to a spokesperson. According to information from AFP, seven countries rejected the proposal, including Hungary and Poland.
The majority decision is particularly explosive as Hungary and Poland threaten to block important EU decisions on the EU budget in the long term if the new rule of law mechanism is introduced. This could mean, for example, that Corona’s planned economic stimulus program cannot start.
Proposal foresees cuts in subsidies
The proposal of the German Presidency of the Council of the EU envisages, among other things, allowing cuts in EU financial assistance if violations of the rule of law “have a sufficiently direct impact” on the budgetary management and financial interests of the EU. Union.
Indeed, the EU Commission has proposed that sanctions should be possible when the lack of the rule of law threatens to undermine the basic requirements for sound financial management.
However, in the opinion of the German Presidency of the Council of the EU, it would have violated a decision of the July EU summit to adhere to it. There, the heads of state and government of the member states stipulated that sanctions should only be possible “in case of violations.”
The crown crisis as a stress test for the rule of law
The intended weakening of the planned mechanism was recently harshly criticized within the ranks of the European Parliament. MEPs described the proposal presented by the German Presidency of the Council of the EU earlier this week as a sign of “cowardice and lack of principle”. It also doesn’t go far enough for the governments of the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Belgium. However, they could not block it on Wednesday in the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States, nor Hungary and Poland.
The EU Commission had previously identified deficits in the rule of law in some member states. In its first report on the subject, the Brussels authority refers mainly to the restrictions on the judiciary and the media, which put democratic standards at risk. It also says that the crown crisis is a kind of “stress test” for the rule of law in EU countries. The report will be presented today.
