MEPs threaten legal action if Commission unfreezes more funds for Hungary
In a scathing resolution, Members of the European Parliament threatened to launch legal action against the European Commission if the executive releases further frozen funds to Hungary, Euronews reports.
The text, approved on Thursday afternoon with 345 votes in favour, 104 against and 29 abstentions, comes a month after the Commission unblocked €10.2 billion in cohesion funds for Hungary, allowing the country to request reimbursements of that sum.
The funds were unfrozen after Budapest made judicial reforms in May to strengthen judicial independence and mitigate political interference in the courts, responding to the conditions - known as "super milestones" - that Brussels had imposed.
The Commission is still withholding €11.5 billion from Hungary's allocated share of cohesion funds and most of its €10.4-billion recovery and resilience plan, a situation that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has denounced as "financial blackmail."
Still, the move to partially release the frozen funds infuriated the Parliament, as made clear in lawmakers' scorching resolution, which raises the possibility of suing Ursula von der Leyen's executive if further cash is unblocked.
Such a lawsuit would be brought before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg, which can adjudicate inter-institutional fights.
The Parliament will "use any of the legal and political measures at its disposal if the Commission releases funding without the criteria being fulfilled or if it fails to ensure the full implementation of the relevant legislation, considering its responsibility to act as the guardian of the Treaties and to protect the EU's financial interests," the text reads.
"The Commission is politically accountable to Parliament," it adds.
Additionally, lawmakers instructed their legal service to review the validity of the €10.2 billion decision, arguing the judicial reform approved by Budapest fails to "meet the standard of judicial independence" enshrined in the EU treaties as that the measures do not "ensure sufficient safeguards against political influence and can be either circumvented or inadequately applied."
