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Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán: "Fundamentally, regularly and far-reaching" violation of democratic principles
Photo: Olivier Matthys/AP
When the British Queen is buried, dates will also be rescheduled that will deal with the foundations of the EU.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has already convened her commissioners for Sunday so that she can attend the funeral of Elizabeth II on Monday and fly on to the UN General Assembly in New York immediately afterwards.
The meeting of the college is explosive: According to SPIEGEL information, the commission will decide to propose sanctions against Hungary to the council of member states.
Funding is to be withdrawn from the country due to numerous violations of the rule of law.
Only the amount of the reduction is still open – and it should apparently be lower than previously expected.
At the end of July, budget commissioner Johannes Hahn threatened the Hungarian government that essentially 70 percent of three subsidy programs would be cut.
Even that would only affect a manageable part of Hungary's EU funds.
There are no exact figures, but experts roughly estimate that about a fifth of the good 34 billion euros to which Hungary is entitled from the current seven-year budget of the EU.
Lawyers, on the other hand, recently issued a report demanding that the EU should no longer transfer anything to Hungary.
Hungary violates democratic principles "fundamentally, regularly and extensively" in such a way that the "legitimacy of the allocation of EU funds" is generally endangered.
However, the penalty envisaged by the Commission is likely to be even milder than expected.
Since the end of July, the Hungarian government has promised a whole series of reforms to improve the rule of law.
The Commission now apparently wants to take this into account.
Insiders expect that she will recommend a cut of well under 70 percent to the Council of Member States – how much less is still an open question.
On Tuesday, Commissioner Hahn informed representatives of the European Parliament about the status of the negotiations - and, according to participants, praised Hungary's offers.
These should also be included as so-called milestones in Hungary's Corona reconstruction plan.
The Commission has also withheld the funds from this pot – it is about six billion euros in grants – because of violations of the rule of law.
Is Orbán serious this time?
"In extreme cases, this could mean that all funds - both the Corona funds and the normal subsidies - are paid out in mid-November," says FDP MEP Moritz Körner.
"It is significant that it is now a milestone for von der Leyen that member states comply with EU law." It would be welcome if the Hungarian government actually significantly improved the rule of law, says Körner.
However, he is skeptical that this will actually happen.
"For many of the Hungarian proposals, it is unclear how they will be implemented and how effective they will be."
Some in the Commission see things the same way.
In addition, the proposals from Budapest would not eliminate all concerns even if they were fully implemented, it is said.
And implementation in national law by Sunday is practically impossible anyway.
This is one of the reasons why it is considered certain that the Commission will recommend the member states to withdraw money from Hungary.
The Council then has up to two months to vote on the application.
In the end, decisions are made by qualified majority: 15 of the 27 member countries with at least 65 percent of the total EU population must agree for sanctions to be imposed.
This hurdle is considered high – and may soon be too high if an alliance led by the neo-fascist Fratelli d'Italia governs Italy after the elections at the end of September.
In addition, Hungary's government will most likely try everything until mid-November to convince the other member states that they have largely fulfilled the rule of law requirements of the Commission.
But that would be anything but a success, as Green MEP Daniel Freund fears.
"The 'reforms' that the commission agreed with Hungary will hardly repair in two months what Orban has done in twelve years of sole rule," says Freund.
"The systematic corruption with EU funds would continue almost unhindered and cement Viktor Orbán's rule." Von der Leyen would then have failed in her "most fundamental task": protecting the EU treaties.
The President of the Commission only made a clear promise in her speech on the state of the EU on Wednesday.
"It is the duty and the foremost task of my commission to protect the rule of law," von der Leyen said.
"We will continue to insist on the independence of the judiciary."