The European Commission must now decide whether it will attempt to sway Hungary to amend the legislation, do away with it entirely, or call on the Luxembourg-based court to level fines.
The problem with legal unification in Europe is that it follows an agenda marketed as the protection of ‘European values.’ The question is: what are these values and who decides them?
Reports suggest that the government is hoping to shut up opponents of its possible Northern Ireland Protocol deal rather than work to change its contentious substance.
The Privacy Shield, struck down by the European Court of Justice in 2020, has now been replaced by a new data-sharing agreement between the U.S. and EU. How its implementation will ultimately fare, and whether it will arouse the scrutiny of European courts, remains to be seen.
The EU defends the sanctions as a means toward protecting the rule of law, judicial independence, and transparency; Warsaw and Budapest, however, read the ruling as a political tool used to punish governments that the EU disapproves of.
The ECJ handed down the much-anticipated ruling on denying EU countries EU money. Significantly, the pronouncement was broadcast live in Hungarian and Polish, indicating how ground-breaking ruling is considered. The court denied all of Poland and Hungary’s grievances, but the fight over rule of law has just truly begun.
