(Bloomberg) -- A polarizing battle inside the European Union to tie funding to the rule-of-law got personal after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban demanded the official charged with upholding those norms be sacked for calling his country a “sick democracy.”
The resignation of European Commission Vice President for Values and Transparency Vera Jourova is “indispensable,” Orban wrote in a letter to the head of the EU’s executive arm, Ursula von der Leyen. Until she leaves, Hungary will suspend “all bilateral political contacts” with Jourova, according to the letter published Tuesday.
The development may erect another obstacle to a quick agreement for unlocking the EU’s 750 billion-euro ($875 billion) coronavirus recovery fund. The package needs the formal sign-off of all member states, but those opposed to attaching rule-of-law conditions, such as Hungary, have vowed to block it unless they’re dropped.
EU diplomats are meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday in Brussels to try to reach a deal based on a proposal by Germany, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency. At stake is whether the EU can swiftly deliver much-needed funds to combat the steepest recession on record, while making sure the money isn’t misappropriated by countries where democratic checks and balances are weak.
“We have seen the letter from Prime Minister Orban and of course we will reply to it,” European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand told reporters in Brussels. “President von der Leyen works closely with Vice President Jourova on the rule of law and the vice president has the president’s full trust.”
Germany’s draft, leaked on Monday, is a watered-down version of an earlier EU Commission proposal and is widely seen as an attempt to balance the demands of rich northern countries pushing for a strict link between financial aid and democratic standards and eastern countries that are resisting it.
Hungary rejected the proposal, saying it amounted to a “unilateral amendment” of EU treaties that would require support from all member states. EU leaders agreed at their July summit on “a mechanism to protect the budget of the EU and not on another rule-of-law mechanism,” Justice Minister Judit Varga said on Facebook.
Hungary and Poland are the only two member states that are currently subject to formal EU rule-of-law probes. Jourova is scheduled to present the Commission’s first annual rule-of-law report on members on Wednesday, which may be another indicator if any countries are deemed to be in breach of the bloc’s standards and vulnerable to having funding cut off.
The Hungarian and Polish governments -- both criticized for extending political influence over the courts, media and culture three decades after the transition from communism -- have vowed to fight what Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Monday called “political blackmail” dressed up as concern for democratic values.
Their foreign ministers met in Budapest on Monday to announce a plan to set up a comparative legal studies institute to expose what they said were the EU’s rule-of-law “double standards.”
For Orban, the attack on Jourova, who in an interview with Spiegel last week also called the state of press freedom in Hungary “alarming,” may not only serve to try to discredit the EU’s rule-of-law probe.
It’s also a tried-and-tested effort to deflect voters’ attention just as Hungary became a virus hot-spot during the second wave of the pandemic and suffered once of the biggest economic contractions in the EU’s eastern wing.
“Orban needs to reframe the political discourse and demonizing the EU, its institutions and specific people is part of the effort to sow conflict and rally Hungarians behind him,” said Andras Biro-Nagy, director of the Budapest-based Policy Solutions institute.
Orban’s previous targets included European Parliament members who authored critical reports about Hungary as well as former EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who was the subject of a nationwide government billboard campaign.
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