Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán lashed out at the EU on Monday, describing it as a ‘poorly executed contemporary parody’ of the Soviet Union, after the EU parliament urged the Commission to resist Hungary’s €13 billion rule of law ‘blackmail’.
The Commission is considering unfreezing €13 billion in funds earmarked for Hungary, which it has blocked over concerns about the rule of law. The aim is to persuade Hungary to lift its veto on EU budget revisions.
Despite some reforms in Budapest to meet the rule of law milestones set by the EU as a condition for unblocking the funds, MEPs from the Greens, EPP, Renew Europe and S&D – a majority in the European Parliament – held a press conference on Monday to urge the Commission not to give in to Orbán’s “blackmail”.
In practice, none of the milestones are being met at the moment (…), it would be extremely damaging to unfreeze this money,” said Green MEP Daniel Freund.
According to a parliamentary study presented by the lawmakers, Hungary has not yet sufficiently reformed the Supreme Court to ensure its independence, while failing to strengthen the National Judicial Council.
Abuse of the ‘cash machine
MEPs also expressed concern about the “signal” that unfreezing the funds would send to EU member states and questioned Hungary’s commitment to the necessary reforms, while calling for safeguards.
“Regrettably, the Hungarian government is not a good faith actor. The guarantees must be ironclad, as there is a significant risk that they will be abused,” warned Renew Europe MEP Katalin Cseh.
“Viktor Orbán still seems to be under the impression that he can use the EU as an ATM, and giving him access to funds again in exchange for limited and easily circumvented reforms would send the wrong signal,” said Socialist MEP Thijs Reuten, adding that “as soon as these funds are released, the Orbán government will use every opportunity to reverse positive developments.”
If the Commission eventually releases the funds and ignores MEPs’ concerns, the Parliament could take the case to the EU Court of Justice and refuse to give the Commission its annual financial discharge, as required by the treaties, Freund warned.
Given the “inadequate” implementation of the rule of law milestones, MEPs urged the Commission to “wait resolutely” and called on the Venice Commission – a Council of Europe body tasked with assessing the state of the rule of law in Council of Europe member states – to issue a thorough report on Hungary’s reforms.
Brussels, ‘a poorly executed parody’
As the EU Parliament called for restrictions on Hungary’s EU funds, Orbán attacked the EU’s rule of law conditionality mechanism and compared Brussels to Moscow during a speech in the city of Veszprém, Euractiv’s partner Telex reported.
“Fortunately, Brussels is not Moscow,” Orbán declared: “It happens that history repeats itself, but fortunately what was a tragedy the first time is a comedy the second time. Moscow was a tragedy, Brussels is just a badly executed contemporary parody”.
“And when Moscow whistled, we had to dance like that, but when Brussels whistled, we don’t dance if we don’t want to,” he added, referring to EU pressure to reform the judiciary.
Orbán continued to draw the Brussels-Moscow parallel, arguing that the “comradeship training” was unchanged, only now the “party-state reprimand” was called the rule of law conditionality procedure.
“It is not the tanks that are rolling in from the East, but the dollars from the West, but to the same place and to the same people,” he added.
Looking ahead to the upcoming European elections in June 2024, Orbán said he still had faith in the EU bloc. “Europe is still breathing, the life force is still working in its body,” he said.