European Parliament targets Warsaw

In Brussels

Enough procrastination.

The European Parliament has followed through on its threat by legally attacking the European Commission.

He appealed to the European Court of Justice for non-activation of the conditionality mechanism, linking EU funding to respect for the rule of law by a country.

"

", explains the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli.

Indeed, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had been particularly hard

ten days ago, insisting that it would not be

.

But three days later, after a European summit, the tone has softened substantially.

, criticizes David Sassoli.

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The conflict between European institutions is not new.

The conditionality mechanism was one of the demands of the European Parliament in the difficult negotiations of the long-term budget of the Union and of the European recovery plan, in July 2020. Since then, the institution has done everything to urge the European Commission to stand still. show firm against Hungary and Poland.

Without success so far.

And this new decision, which amounts to unleashing the most powerful weapon available to Parliament, is unlikely to be the solution.

Not only will the procedure take many months, but no one really believes in a victory.

The internal legal services had also expressed concerns about the advisability of taking the plunge.

A symbolic approach

The explanation is both political and legal. If the European Commission is slow to activate the mechanism, in place since January 1, 2021, it is because the Member States have asked it to wait for the European Court of Justice to rule on a complaint lodged by Poland and Hungary , calling into question the legality of this measure. This should not happen before the end of the year, or at the beginning of 2022. For the Commission experts too, it makes more sense not to activate the mechanism before its existence and its legal basis are final. Especially since this leaves time for the services to put together the files, and this work has already started, they insist. Information requests should be sent to some governments in the coming weeks.

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Parliament's approach is therefore above all symbolic.

It is part of a pressure-based approach, coupled with support for the European Commission.

Beyond the conditionality mechanism, some hope that this pressure will help the Commission in its standoff with Warsaw over the Polish recovery plan, which provides for 36 billion euros in European subsidies.