EU Court of Justice Rules Against Hungarian Government

With measures for the protection of the Union budget in mind, the Court of Justice, sitting as a full Court, dismissed the actions brought by the Hungarian and Polish governments against the conditionality mechanism which makes the receipt of financing from the Union budget subject to the respect by the Member States for the principles of the rule of law.

According to the Court, the regulation is intended to protect the Union budget from effects resulting, in a sufficiently direct way, from breaches of the principles of the rule of law and not to penalize those breaches as such.

In that regard, the Court points out that compliance by the Member States with the common values on which the European Union is founded – which have been identified and are shared by the Member States and which define the very identity of the European Union as a legal order common to those States – such as the rule of law and solidarity, justifies the mutual trust between those States. Since that compliance is a condition for the enjoyment of all the rights deriving from the application of the Treaties to a Member State, the European Union must be able to defend those values, within the limits of its powers.

In reaction from the Hungarian government, Minister of Justice Judit Varga, claimed that a political decision has been taken on the mechanism. "The decision is living proof that Brussels is abusing its power. The judgment is another pressure against our country, because we adopted our child protection law during the summer."

However, members of the Hungarian opposition pointed out that what the government calls ‘child protection law’ appeared in political discourse half a year after PM Viktor Orbán turned to the EU Court, asking for the annulment of the mechanism that can withhold EU funding from member countries where the government does not adhere to the rule of law, which is a basic principle in the European Union.

The prime minister candidate by the joint opposition at the April 3 parliamentary elections in Hungary, Péter Márki-Zay was of the view regarding the Court’s decision that the Orbán government’s corruption strips the Hungarian people of HUF 6,000 billion in EU funding and a new government would recover that amount for Hungary.