EC Triggers Rule-Of-Law Mechanism Against Hungary

The European Commission has sent a formal notification to the Hungarian government to launch the so-called conditionality mechanism, which links the disbursement of EU funds to the rule of law, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in Strasbourg on Tuesday at the European Parliament (EP) plenary session.

As the Hungarian state news agency MTI reports, the leaders of the EP political groups asked the Commission President about the implementation of EU policy priorities. In response to questions from EP members on the rule of law in Hungary and Poland, von der Leyen said that the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union, in which judges rejected actions brought by Hungary and Poland against the regulation on the rule of law, confirmed that "the Commission's approach on this issue is the right one."

She added that the Hungarian government had been given the chance to respond to the committee's concerns and that these responses had been analyzed by the panel. "We have come to the conclusion that we have to take the next step," she said.

Ursula von der Leyen stated that "corruption is the biggest problem in Hungary." She added that the Commission is in talks with the Hungarian government to adopt a plan for a fund to repair the economic damage caused by the coronavirus epidemic and to disburse funds, but the process has not been completed so far. "For us, the fight against corruption is the most important condition in this area," the president of the EU’s executive body in Brussels stressed.