BERLIN — Germany’s three ruling parties are urging Chancellor Olaf Scholz to “thoroughly” scrutinize Hungary’s rule-of-law reforms and only support releasing billions of withheld EU money if Budapest can prove it’s serious about addressing longstanding concerns over democratic backsliding.
EU countries will have to decide next month whether to suspend about €7.5 billion in EU funds for Hungary under a rule-of-law conditionality mechanism, or whether to judge that the anti-corruption reforms Budapest is presenting as a mediating measure are sufficient to drop the sanction. Similarly, the EU has been holding back Hungary’s access to €5.8 billion in coronavirus recovery funds and is requesting further judicial reforms before releasing that money.
Anti-corruption campaigners in Budapest warned this week that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is duping the EU with his reform promises, which experts and activists call insufficient.
In Berlin, lawmakers in the Bundestag share these concerns: The parliamentary groups of Scholz’s own Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) — the three parties in the ruling coalition — plan to put a motion to vote on Thursday that would “request” the government to “thoroughly assess” whether Hungary’s reforms have “a sustainable impact in practice.” If that’s not deemed the case, then the government should draw up the appropriate consequences and vote for suspending payments to Budapest.
The resolution focuses on the €7.5 billion that EU countries could suspend under the rule-of-law conditionality mechanism, but a negative assessment could also have consequences for the release of the additional €5.8 billion in coronavirus funds.
“There are serious doubts about the political will of the Hungarian government to implement the necessary reforms not only in letter but also in fact,” the parliamentary motion, obtained exclusively by POLITICO, reads. Given that the motion is backed by the three governing parties, which have a majority in parliament, it is likely to pass — and the government could hardly ignore such an order from lawmakers of its own parties.
The motion also calls on the European Commission to “ensure” that Hungary’s proposed reforms are sufficient to address all relevant rule-of-law shortcomings. As long as the Commission cannot guarantee that happens, the text instructs the German government to vote for suspending the €7.5 billion, and to only change its position if Hungary can provide “appropriate evidence” that it has taken “effective remedial action.”
Ultimately, the vote in the EU Council on suspending the payments will take place by a qualified majority decision, but a number of countries — including the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland — have already taken a critical position toward Hungary and a negative vote by Germany might be crucial to blocking the funds.
Last month, Orbán got the cold shoulder in Berlin when he visited Scholz and sought to rally support for Hungary’s position.
Michael Link, an FDP lawmaker, argued that it was important for both the Commission and the German government to safeguard democratic values across the EU.
“Orbán must not avoid the necessary reforms to restore the rule of law in his country by making half-baked compromises and cosmetic changes,” Link said. “This is in no way about sanctioning the Orbán government, but about sustainably strengthening the rule of law — which Hungary voluntarily committed to when it joined the EU — and protecting the EU budget from abuse.”
