Before activating the rule-of-law mechanism against Hungary and Poland over the so-called rule-of-law violations, the outgoing German Chancellor believes “we can wait for this decision of the European Court of Justice.”Continue reading
The European Commission is “waging a political cold war” against Poland instead of fulfilling its duties as guardian of the EU Treaties, Tamás Deutsch, the head of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz’s group in the European Parliament, told Hungarian public media in the interval of an EP plenary debate about a recent legislation in Poland, on Tuesday.
At the session, a debate was held about a decision under which Poland’s constitutional court declared primacy of the Polish Constitution over EU laws.
Addressing the debate, Deutsch said that “launching a cold war was yet another, the fourth, step in a series of attacks that had begun with activating the EU’s Article 7 procedure against Hungary and Poland on the basis of false information and trumped-up charges”. “The EU is threatening these two countries with suspending their voting right in the European Council,” he said.
Deutsch said that after the Article 7 procedure, the next step in the series of attacks had been “forcing through” the rule of law criteria which Brussels used “as a tool of political blackmail for the suspension of allocations in EU development funding to a member state that had not met its expectations”.
The third step for the European Commission was to postpone in an irregular way the allocation in coronavirus pandemic related recovery funding to Poland and Hungary which the two member states are otherwise entitled to receive, the Fidesz MEP said.
“In these attacks, the EC has had the European Parliament, the European Left and the European People’s Party as cooperating partners,” Deutsch said.
Featured photo by Szilárd Koszticsák/MTI