The appeal by Poland and Hungary against a mechanism to suspend the payment of European funds in the event of a violation of the principles of the rule of law must be rejected, estimated Thursday, December 2 the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the 'EU.
"
This regime was adopted on an adequate legal basis, it is compatible with (the treaties) and respects the principle of legal certainty
", indicated the Advocate General, whose conclusions do not bind the Court but are most of the time monitored by this jurisdiction based in Luxembourg.
The final decision is expected in a few weeks, probably in early 2022.
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Entered into force on January 1 but never used, the new “
conditionality
”
mechanism
deprives a country of European funds of violations of the rule of law (lack of judicial independence, corruption, etc. .) affecting or likely to affect the EU budget. Warsaw and Budapest, which are among the countries potentially threatened by this "conditionality" mechanism, due to their recurring disputes with the EU on the rule of law, seized European justice in March to have it annulled.
The European Commission, responsible for triggering the mechanism, has indicated that it will wait for the CJEU's decision before taking action.
But she began to gather information to build files, and on November 19 sent letters to Poland and Hungary.
The European executive asked Warsaw for explanations on the problems of the lack of independence of its judicial system and the questioning of the primacy of European law.
On the Hungarian side, the Commission evokes problems relating to the award of public contracts and conflicts of interest.