When it comes to upholding the rule of law within the continent, the European Parliament knows how to go on the offensive. In the next few days, this Strasbourg-based institution is set to bring a case before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) against the EU Commission's decision, on December 13, 2023, to release €10.2 billion of EU funds which had been previously withheld from Budapest for its failings in upholding this principle.

It will fall to Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, to take the formal decision at a meeting with the presidents of this legislative assembly's political groups on Thursday, March 14. Yet it is already a foregone conclusion, with the conservatives of the European People's Party (EPP), the Socialists & Democrats (S&D), the liberals of Renew, the Greens and the radical left (The Left) groups all being in favor of the move.

"Initiating legal proceedings against the Commission is an extreme step but a necessary one," commented German MEP Sergey Lagodinsky (Greens). This would be the seventeenth time that MEPs have taken the Commission to court since the early days of EU integration.

Viktor Orban's blackmail

The matter came to a head on the evening of March 11, when the Parliament's legal affairs committee recommended, in a closed meeting, that legal action be lodged against the EU Commission. Sixteen MEPs were in favor, with just one – Gilles Lebreton, a member of France's Rassemblement National (RN, far-right) party, which has cultivated a certain closeness to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban – opposed to it.

The European Parliament criticized the Commission for releasing the funds despite Budapest's failure to – in return – complete the reforms that had been required to guarantee the independence of the Hungarian judiciary. In so doing, the Commission had allegedly given in to Orban's blackmail, as he was then threatening to veto the opening of negotiations for Ukraine's accession to the EU.

In any case, on December 14, 2023, the day after this decision was taken, the Hungarian prime minister let his partners take this step, by very conveniently absenting himself from the European Council meeting for a coffee. In a report published on February 22, the European Court of Auditors regretted that "political considerations" may have "ultimately play[ed] a major role [...] when rule-of-law decisions on Hungary had to be taken at the same time as voting on the Ukrainian accession talks."

"We cannot allow the Commission and Council to continue giving Viktor Orban leverage to blackmail the EU, block the necessary decisions and continue his attacks on the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights in the country," insisted Lagodinsky.

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