European Union member states are under fire from Brussels for not complying with their rule-of-law conditions, according to the official report released on Tuesday, July 8th. The EU Commission usually uses rule-of-law claims to push its progressive agenda and force the hand of sovereign states.
Hungary was singled out for particular criticism, with the report finding that it had failed to make progress on all but one of the key recommendations it received last year.
European Democracy Commissioner Michael McGrath announced that the Commission is now preparing plans to toughen enforcement, including proposals to make compliance with rule-of-law standards a mandatory condition for accessing funding from the bloc’s budget.
Zoltán Kovács, Hungary’s international spokesperson, reacted to the report on X, saying, “Hungary will not become a puppet state of Brussels”. Kovács highlighted that the report is more of a political agenda and extortion than a legal document.
He said the goal of the report is to re-open channels for foreign funds to support left-wing NGOs and allow the progressive narrative, which the government fought hard against, into Hungarian politics.
