Brussels, 19 September 2022
The MEPs who guided the “rule-of-law conditionality” through the EP welcomed the Commission’s suspension of 7.5 billion euros of cohesion funding for Hungary.
Co-rapporteur of EP’s Budgetary Control committee Petri Sarvamaa (EPP, FI) said:
“Year after year, Hungary has promised to improve the state of its adherence to the rule of law, but concretely the situation has gotten worse. The Commission must not let Hungary get away with this. The European Parliament will continue to remain vigilant throughout this process in defence of EU values. It is time for Hungary to honour its promises.”
“It is abundantly clear that Hungary will fulfil the list of requirements superficially. The real question is how the Commission will ensure that these measures are actually implemented and whether the risk of money being misused by the Hungarian government declines,” he added.
Co-rapporteur of EP Budgets committee Eider Gardiazabal Rubial (S&D, ES) said:
“Finally, the Commission acted under the conditionality regulation to protect the EU budget against the deteriorating rule of law situation in Hungary. Now the ball is in the Council’s court: member states must act fast and adopt the Commission’s proposal.”
“Orbán now needs to decide: restore the rule of law, or stop receiving a significant chunk of EU funding. As Parliament, we will follow very closely the actual implementation of any remedial measures put in place by Hungary, to verify that promises made by the Hungarian government are kept. The rule of law must be respected by the Hungarian government in all of its actions, and including in relation to judicial independence, ” she said.
Background
The budget conditionality regulation that entered into force on 1 January 2021, is the most recent of EU’s instruments for protecting EU funds from being misused by national governments that breach the rule of law.