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By Gabriela Baczynska
BRUSSELS, July 13 (Reuters) – The European Union on Wednesday called on Hungary and Poland for judicial and media independence as well as anti-corruption safeguards, saying situations to release billions in aid remain unanswered and remain serious considerations.
The assessment is contained in the EU executive’s new rule of law report, which includes recommendations for democratic innovations in the bloc’s 27 member states, from increased monetary disclosure to the digitization of public administration.
But all eyes are on the two ex-communist countries where Eurospect governments have fought bitter battles with the EU over migration, human rights, environmental issues and democratic values.
“Russia’s war in Ukraine is a reminder of the importance of our paintings in protecting and promoting the rule of law in the EU and beyond,” EU Values and Transparency Commissioner Vera Jourova said at the launch of the report.
“We can remain credible if our own house is in order. “
The Brussels-based Commission is denying Budapest €15. 5 billion in a stimulus budget to help pull economies out of THE COVID decline, and another €36 billion planned for Poland, the EU’s largest country in the east.
The Commission has already approved bills for 25 Member States. Poland is part of this group, but has not yet won any cash because the Commission is committed to refrain from making the actual banking move before the Polish judicial formula is fixed.
To date, the Commission has delivered more than €100 billion to countries such as Spain and Croatia. The Netherlands submitted its spending plan for approval last week after lengthy domestic political disputes.
The Commission must approve Hungary’s plan.
But on Wednesday, the Commission’s report said considerations about Hungary’s judicial independence “remain unanswered. “
He advised Budapest on the role of its National Council of the Judiciary, as well as improving the independence of the media regulatory authority and adopting “comprehensive reforms on lobbying. “
In Warsaw, he said that “serious considerations similar to the independence of the Polish judiciary persist. “
It called for the separation of the roles of the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General, access for civil society to policy-making and the guarantee of a fair procedure for deciding on media licensing.
This comes at a delicate time for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, when the guilder has reached record levels of opposition to the euro amid double-digit inflation and emerging energy costs.
Consultancy Eurointelligence said the giant spending that helped Orban’s last election victory in April had already exhausted a projected budget deficit for the 2022 total in the first part of the year.
“This leaves Orbán with a difficult economic challenge to solve, which would be less difficult to solve if it had EU funding,” he said in a note on Wednesday.
Budapest has said continuously over the weeks that it is in a position to reach an agreement with the Commission, but the executive has pointed to insufficient progress by Hungary, which has resisted pressure for years to safeguard corruption.
Meanwhile, Orban has confused the EU’s efforts to impose sanctions on Russia for waging war against Ukraine, or agree to a minimum corporate tax.
“Hungary and the European Commission (. . . ) they are reaching the level of mutual stagnation of their impasse in the rule of law,” Eurointelligence said.
(Reporting through Gabriela Baczynska; Edited via Angus MacSwan, William Maclean)