Vera Jourová said there was no cause for concern, that it was a matter of months and that the EU Court of Justice would rule on the legitimacy of the rule of law mechanism.

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After the German presidency’s proposal to significantly weaken the rule of law was adopted at the EU summit on Thursday, the governments of Hungary and Poland immediately proclaimed a major victory in Brussels, and their opponents began to frame the agreement in largely as a failure of the EU in democratic values.

This victory-defeat narrative is being countered by Vera Jourová, vice president of the European Commission of Justice, who told Politico after the agreement that, contrary to rumors,

There is no need to fear that the implementation of the rule of law mechanism will take years.

In his view, it is more a matter of months and the Court of Justice of the European Union will rule on the question of whether the rule of law mechanism is compatible with EU law. All this is important because, according to Thursday’s agreement, the mechanism will only come into force if the court has examined the matter and ruled on it at the initiative of Poland and Hungary. We also wrote in 444 that knowing the functioning of the EU court, such a decision may take years, that is, the mechanism will not be applicable before the Hungarian elections in 2022, and perhaps even before the Polish elections in 2023.

Jourova was joined by Petri Sarvamaa MEP, the European Parliament’s top negotiator on the rule of law. He wrote on Twitter, he knows that the EU Court of Justice will deal with the Polish-Hungarian lawsuit attacking the mechanism in advance, as it did previously in a question related to the Brexit withdrawal. Furthermore, according to Sarvamaa, if the mechanism enters into force in 2021, it will be valid from January 1, that is, retroactively until the beginning of the year, in relation to the actions of the Member States.

“So there is no question of delay”

he said.