The Hungarian Parliament voted to approve the judicial reform package needed to unlock €13.2 billion from the frozen EU cohesion funds on Wednesday, May 3rd, a day after the Hungarian prime minister met with Johannes Hahn, the EU’s budget commissioner in Budapest.
Even if the reforms were technically approved by the EU, it could still take months until the European Commission gives the final green light for releasing the funds, while the rest of the €27.8 billion of EU funds it decided to withhold from the country last year will remain tied to further legislative steps.
As we reported last week, Hungary announced reaching a major landmark in the negotiations with the EU over the €22 billion worth of cohesion funds withheld from Hungary over rule of law concerns.
Within this ‘technical agreement,’ the Commission finally approved a proposed reform package aimed at strengthening the independence of the Hungarian judiciary, which was the requirement for unlocking the largest share of the funds, worth over €13.2 billion.
The reform package was then moved before the Hungarian Parliament, which approved it on Wednesday with 151 votes for and zero against, and 23 abstentions. Most importantly, the reforms strengthen the authority of an independent judicial body that will oversee all future legislative processes regarding the judiciary and will be able to challenge the decisions of the Ministry of Justice at the Constitutional Court.
With the Hungarian Parliament overwhelmingly approving the package, the ball is now in the Commission’s court to deliver on its promise and release the corresponding funds. However, as Politico noted earlier, the final green light from Brussels could still be months away, as the Commission will likely want to monitor the implementation of the reforms first—which would also give Eurocrats time to use it as leverage in the negotiations about the rest of the frozen funds which are tied to further anti-corruption measures.
Predictably, the most difficult negotiations will take place around the €2.5 billion that’s tied to three ongoing rule of law disputes between Hungary and the Commission, largely seen by the former as a way to force a series of unwanted political positions onto the Hungarian people.
These three include the Commission’s demand to backroll Hungary’s controversial Child Protection Act (seen by the Commission as homophobic), requests to reform its treatment of asylum seekers, and the strengthening of academic independence for Hungarian universities.
However, time is on the side of the Commission in these negotiations. With Hungarian inflation reaching 25.2% in March, the longer the dispute goes on, the harder it will be for Budapest to stick to its political principles.
