Steven N.
Péter Márki-Zay, United for Hungary’s candidate for prime minister (pictured), reacted to yesterday’s ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the EU law linking democratic backsliding with the distribution of European Union funds.
The European Court of Justice has ruled that they won’t give money to thieves. Unfortunately, Hungarian citizens are the ones paying the bill, as corruption is depriving Hungary of EU recovery aid. Hungarians deserve these 6 trillion forints. We’ll send Orban packing, and the new government will bring home 600,000 forints per person in aid.
-wrote Péter Márki-Zay on social media.
The Luxembourg-based court yesterday rejected a complaint brought by Hungary and Poland on the EU’s “conditionality mechanism” regulation, which the two member countries claim is contrary to EU treaties. The mechanism allows the European Commission to restrict or cut funds to countries where violations of democratic standards have harmed the joint EU budget.
Despite protests from the two countries, the ECJ found that there was an appropriate legal basis for the disputed mechanism structure. Thus, the payment of EU funds to Hungary and Poland may be withdrawn if “breaches of the principles of the rule of law…affect or seriously risk affecting the sound financial management of the Union budget or the protection of the financial interests of the Union in a sufficiently direct way.”
Justice Minister Judit Varga said in the Government Information briefing after the ruling on Wednesday that the ECJ had made a politically-motivated decision because of their dissatisfaction with the Hungarian government’s “child protection” law. [HVG]
