The European Commission voted on Thursday to condemn the damage to democracy in Hungary, passing a resolution that calls the government of ultraconservative nationalist Viktor Orbán “electoral autocracy” and pressing the bloc to cut funding for the former country. communist.
Citing corruption risks, the European Union parliament is expected later this week to suspend billions earmarked for Budapest from the bloc’s €1.1 trillion shared budget for 2021-27.
This would be the first move by the EU under a sanction agreed two years ago precisely in response to Orbán, as well as his allies in Poland. Through the “conditionality mechanism for accessing EU funds”, each country in the bloc could only receive resources for its post-pandemic recovery if it internally respected the rule of law.
The resolution approved this Thursday by 433 votes in favor and 123 against is a non-binding document that declares the “existence of a clear risk of serious violation by Hungary of the values on which the Union is based”. [Europeia]”.
“The situation has deteriorated so much that Hungary has become an ‘electoral autocracy’,” the Commission said in a statement.
The 48-page document “deeply regrets that the EU’s lack of decisive action” has allowed Hungary to get to this point and calls on European institutions to “pay more attention to the systemic dismantling of the rule of law” in the country.
MEPs also called on the European Commission “to make full use of the instruments available to deal with the evident risk of a serious breach by Hungary of the values on which the Union is based”.
The European Parliament press service stressed that “Hungary can no longer be considered a full democracy”.
In response, Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party said the EU parliament was more interested in attacking Hungary than tackling an economic crisis caused by rising energy costs exacerbated by the Ukraine War and Western sanctions against Russia.
“It is surprising that, even in the current crisis, the leftist majority in the European Parliament is busy only attacking Hungary,” Fidesz said in a statement. “The left in Brussels wants to punish Hungary again and again and withhold funds owed to our country.”
In power since 2010, Orbán has been at the center of bitter disputes with the EU, which Hungary joined in 2004, over the rights of immigrants, gays and women and the independence of the judiciary, the media and academia for years.
In 2018, the European Parliament had already opened a case against Hungary for “risk of major violation of European values”.
The European Commission had also previously blocked Budapest’s access to around €6 billion of a separate post-Covid economic stimulus package, citing a lack of anti-corruption safeguards in Hungary’s public procurement.
Orbán denies that Hungary is more corrupt than other nations in the 27-nation bloc, but has vowed to create a new anti-corruption agency.
Member countries have three months to decide on the Commission’s resolution and can limit punishment if they find Budapest’s actions convincing.
Funds worth up to a tenth of Hungary’s GDP could be at stake if other EU members pass the recommendation.
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