© Reuters
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The European Commission is inactive and does not cut European funds to illiberal countries such as Hungary, Poland or Bulgaria. That is why the European Parliament wants to sue her, notes the German TAC. Deutsche Welle tells more about this escalating dispute.
It is remarkable that the German “Tageszeitung” already places Bulgaria among the so-called illiberal countries in the EU, which until recently included only Hungary and Poland. The big question is: will European money be cut? MEPs had issued an ultimatum by 1 June. Until then, the Commission had to take action against countries that violate the rule of law clause in the EU budget.
At the end of 2020, a rule was adopted that made Member States’ access to European funds conditional on respect for the rule of law. If the European Commission finds that a country is in breach of this principle, it may propose to suspend or freeze payments from the EU budget to it.
The European Commission is inactive
But the Commission never did anything. It intends to first prepare guidelines for the application of the new principle. And this has exhausted the patience of MEPs, notes “Tageszeitung”.
The so-called an indictment of inaction is expected to be filed in plenary in Strasbourg this week. The conservative faction of the European People’s Party (including the German CDU and HSS) opposed the appeal, but the Social Democrats, Greens, Liberals and the Left put pressure. Finally, on Friday (4.6) the German Christian Democrats gave way to him.
“In the EU, the rule of law situation is deteriorating,” the European Parliament’s draft resolution available to Tageszeitung said. The document regrets that after the entry into force of the new legal clause on the EU budget from 1 January 2021 The European Commission has remained inactive. This could be interpreted as a “refusal” to perform one’s duties.
In an interview with the Swiss Neue Zurcher Zeitung, German MEP Moritz Körner (from the German FDP), one of the authors of the resolution, said: “We are very disappointed that instead of implementing the rule of law mechanism, the European Commission is with the preparation of “guidelines” for its implementation. In fact, it behaves like a fire brigade that has arrived at the scene of the fire, but instead of extinguishing it, it begins to discuss exactly how to do it. “
“Slap for Von der Layen”
If the draft resolution is adopted in this form, it would be a slap in the face to EC President Ursula von der Leyen, Tageszeitung commented. So far, von der Leyen has followed the line of Chancellor Angela Merkel, who at the EU summit in December 2020 agreed with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban not to take radical measures.
Orbán announced that he would appeal the new rule of law clause. The European Commission, meanwhile, should have drawn up its “guidelines” for implementing the clause, but the European Parliament has never been able to come to terms with such a compromise. Parliament Speaker David Sasoli has now been given two weeks to bring the case against the European Commission to the European Court.
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