The European Commission has sent an official notification to Hungary that it will start the so-called conditionality mechanism linking the disbursement of EU funds to the rule of law, announced Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, at the plenary session of the European Parliament (EP) in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
The leaders of the EP factions asked the chairman of the committee about the implementation of EU political priorities. Von der Leyen answered questions from left-liberal politicians about the rule of law in Hungary and Poland and said: the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union - in which the judges rejected the lawsuits filed by Hungary and Poland against the decree on the conditions for the rule of law - confirmed: "the committee's approach is correct in this regard on the subject ".
He added: the Hungarian government was given a chance to respond to the committee's concerns, and the panel analyzed these responses.
" We came to the conclusion that we have to take the next step, " he stated.
Ursula von der Leyen said that " corruption is the biggest problem in Hungary ". He added that the committee is negotiating with the Hungarian government on the adoption of the plan related to the fund aimed at restoring the economic damage caused by the coronavirus epidemic and the disbursement of funds, but they have not been able to complete the process so far. " For us, action against corruption is the most important condition in this area ," the president of the EU executive body in Brussels emphasized.
Regarding Poland Ursula von der Leyen said that the biggest concern in terms of the rule of law there is the independence of the judiciary, which is being investigated in the so-called Article 7 procedure - analyzing the risk of a systemic threat to the rule of law. Regarding the sources of the recovery fund in relation to Poland, he said that the debate is still open.
Source: 888.hu. In our opening image: Ursula von der Leyen in the European Parliament (Source: EP)
