Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán took a swipe at the EU on Monday, describing it as a ‘poorly executed contemporary parody’ of the Soviet Union, after the EU Parliament urged the Commission to resist Hungary’s €13 billion rule of law ‘extortion’.
The Commission is considering unfreezing the €13 billion in funds earmarked for Hungary, which it has blocked over concerns about the rule of law. The aim is to get Hungary to lift its veto over the EU budget revision.
Despite some reforms in Budapest to fulfil the rule of law milestones set by the EU as a requirement to unblock the funds, MEPs representing the Greens, the EPP, Renew Europe and S&D – a majority of the European Parliament – held a press conference on Monday to urge the Commission not to fall to Orbán’s “extortion”.
“In practice, as of right now, none of the milestones is fulfilled (…), it would be extremely detrimental to unfreeze this money’, Green MEP Daniel Freund said.
According to a parliamentary study presented by the lawmakers, Hungary has not yet sufficiently reformed the Supreme Court to ensure its independence while failing to strengthen the National Judicial Council.
Abuse of the ‘cash machine’
The lawmakers also expressed concerns over the “signal” that unfreezing funds would send to EU member states and expressed doubts over Hungary´s commitments to the required reforms while urging for safeguards.
“Regrettably, the Hungarian government is not a good-faith actor. Guarantees must be ironclad, as there is a significant risk of them being abused,” Renew Europe MEP Katalin Cseh warned.
“Viktor Orbán still seems to be under the impression that he can use the EU as a cash machine and now giving him access to funds again in exchange for limited and easily circumvented reforms would be the wrong signal”, socialist MEP Thijs Reuten said, adding that “as soon as these funds will be released, the Orbán government will use every opportunity to reverse positive developments”.
If the Commission eventually unblocks the funds and ignores MEPs’ concerns, the Parliament could take the case to the EU Court of Justice and refuse the Commission’s annual financial discharge, as required by the treaties, warned Freund.
Seeing that the rule of law milestones are “inadequately” implemented, MEPs asked the Commission “to wait decisively” and called for the Venice Commission – a Council of Europe body tasked with assessing the rule of law status in Council of Europe member countries – to provide a thorough report on the reforms made by Hungary.
Brussels, ‘a badly executed parody’
As the EU Parliament called for restrictions on Hungary´s EU funds, Orbán charged against the EU´s rule of law conditionality mechanism while also comparing Brussels to Moscow during a speech in the city of Veszprém, Euractiv’s partner Telex reported.
“Fortunately, Brussels is not Moscow”, declared Orbán: “It happens that history repeats itself, but luckily, what was a tragedy the first time is a comedy the second time around. Moscow was a tragedy, Brussels just a badly executed contemporary parody.”
“And if Moscow whistled, then we had to dance like that, but if Brussels whistled, then we don’t dance if we don’t want to,” he added, referring to the EU´s pressures to reform the judiciary.
Orbán continued the Brussels-Moscow parallel by arguing that the “comradeship training” is unchanged, only now the “party-state reprimand” is called a rule of law conditionality procedure.
“It is not the tanks that roll in from the East, but the dollars from the West, but to the same place and to the same people,” he added.
With an eye on the upcoming European elections in June 2024, Orbán said he still had faith in the EU bloc. “Europe still lives breathes, the life force still works in its body,” he said.
(Max Griera | Euractiv.com)
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