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The EU must crack down on Hungary and Poland - Comment

2020-11-17T18:14:19.018Z


Hungary and Poland are blocking the EU budget and Corona aid in the middle of the pandemic - so that they can continue to dismantle the rule of law. If the EU puts up with it, it risks everything.


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Hungary's Prime Minister Orbán

Photo: Gabriel Kuchta / Getty Images

You really did.

When Hungary and Poland threatened to block the next multi-year budget of the EU and the aid funds for the corona crisis countries in the middle of the pandemic, most still believed it was a bluff.

But now it's official: Budapest and Warsaw have vetoed the € 1.8 trillion package.

And not because they have concerns about building the budget or the Corona aid.

If only it was about the money.

Instead, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Poland's strong man Jaroslaw Kaczynski want to prevent the disbursement of EU funds from being tied to compliance with the rule of law.

Approval for such a mechanism should actually be a matter of course in a legal community like the EU.

The mere fact that the other EU states and the European Parliament consider it necessary at all speaks volumes about the state of the rule of law in some EU countries.

It is just as telling how far Hungary and Poland are ready to go: They abuse the EU budget and the corona crisis to force the rest of the EU to give up the rule of law mechanism.

This is political vandalism that not only damages the pandemic victims in Italy or Spain, but also the populations of Poland and Hungary.

And it is Orbán's and Kaczynski's open admission that they have finally said goodbye to the community of values ​​that the EU still sees itself as.

Not a cent for those who despise the rule of law

Such a brutal action against the rule of law mechanism shows that it is extremely important for Orbán and Kaczynski to continue to be in a position to maintain their own power, to bring the media into line, to corrupt the judiciary and to ignore sections of civil society critical of the government - so important that they are ready if necessary becoming a pariah in the EU and losing billions of euros.

Anyone who acts like this in the midst of a crisis with hundreds of thousands of deaths denies the community the last bit of solidarity.

If the EU accepts that, it can also dissolve itself.

It should therefore seriously examine what Marek Prawda, Poland's former EU ambassador and current representative of the EU Commission in Warsaw, recently proposed: to replace the 750 billion euro corona aid package from the regular budget and to reissue it in the form of multilateral agreements.

Poland and Hungary could no longer block and did not receive a cent from the funds.

That would be a painful loss.

According to current plans, Poland, for example, should receive just under 19 billion euros in pure grants from the Corona fund in the next two years alone, which do not have to be repaid.

Only Italy, France and Spain get more.

The EU lives on trust

Sure, that would be an extreme step.

But the behavior of Budapest and Warsaw is no less extreme.

In addition, financial pressure seems to be the only means of the EU to prevent these member states from sliding into autocracy.

All other tools have proven dull - which is why the rule of law mechanism is so important.

The EU is also threatening to make a fool of itself if it did not react hard.

For years, Poland and Hungary have been threatened with the fact that they will be billed for their refusal to accept refugees and their authoritarian behavior in the next EU multiannual budget.

It's now on the table.

And who is at the top of the list of net recipients again?

Right, Poland and Hungary.

Ultimately, the EU can only hope that tough financial measures will turn the populations against governments with autocratic tendencies - so much so that they will have to fear for their power.

There is certainly cause for hope, because the populations in Hungary and Poland are apparently on the side of the EU, at least as far as the rule of law is concerned.

In a recent survey in both countries, 72 percent of those questioned indicated that the allocation of EU funds should be linked to compliance with the rule of law and democratic principles.

Apparently it is clear to them that the EU, this peace project, which is unique in history, is based on shared values.

The EU is not a state, it has no police and no criminal courts.

She can't throw rule breakers into jail, she can't even throw them out.

It must trust that its members are committed to the common ideals of democracy and the rule of law.

If these values ​​are lost, the EU is lost.

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-11-17

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