Editorial of the “World”. In the saga of the challenges posed to the European Union (EU) by two of its Member States, Poland and Hungary, on the failure to respect the rule of law, Brussels has just scored an important point. The decision of the Court of Justice of the EU, handed down on Wednesday February 16, could not be more clearly valid the mechanism adopted in December 2020 by the leaders of the Union in order to make the granting of European funds subject to compliance with the rules of right by the beneficiaries.
By rejecting the action of Warsaw and Budapest, which considered this device illegal, the Court of Justice gave a decisive green light to the Commission to make use of the conditionality mechanism with regard to governments recalcitrant on the rule of law. It is an instrument that was sorely lacking in the Commission in the battle it has been waging for several years with the Polish and Hungarian nationalist leaders, because they have freed themselves from certain rules guaranteeing, in particular, the independence of justice .
This conditionality mechanism should make it possible to ensure that the funds granted by Brussels for the cohesion of the Union are not diverted once they arrive in the recipient country, for lack of an independent control mechanism. The European taxpayer’s money is at stake. From now on, as long as Brussels does not have the assurance of the regularity of the procedures used for the use of these funds, in particular as regards the award of public contracts, in the country concerned , they will not be unlocked.
Since the green light is given, one could imagine that the device would be applied without delay, and the conditionality mechanism triggered for the tens of billions of euros reserved for these two countries. Not so fast! While welcoming the decision of the Court of Justice, the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, considered that it was urgent to wait. The community executive will “analyze carefully” the decision of the Court and will publish, “in the coming weeks”from ” Guidelines “ on the concrete conditions for the implementation of the regulation which established this mechanism. France is on the same line: for Paris, “Now the Commission needs to clarify how the regulation works”. In the European Parliament, some are fuming and accusing Mme von der Leyen to play politics.
No time to falter
They are probably not wrong. This period of ” a few weeks “ there is a risk, in all likelihood, of allowing Prime Minister Viktor Orban to get through the Hungarian general elections on April 3 without having to confront the Commission. In the crucial battle for the identity and the future of Europe which is fought on the principle of respect for the rule of law, Brussels does not want to take the risk of being accused of interference in the electoral process of a Member State – even if it means missing an opportunity to influence the campaign through the law.
Ursula von der Leyen promised “to act with determination” once the review of the implementation conditions has been completed. It is to be hoped that the President of the Commission will keep her promise. Now is not the time to falter. The conditionality mechanism now has an indisputable legal existence, we must not hesitate to use it. To procrastinate unnecessarily, under the pretext that such and such a factor gives hope that we can avoid confrontation, would be to insult the same rule of law that we are supposed to safeguard.