If the European Commission decides to follow the parliament’s recommendation, it could start a process that both Hungary and Poland went through when they were governed by anti-EU, populist governments.
Nicholas Watson
Members of the European Parliament on Wednesday voted to approve a report from the EP Committee on Budgetary Control that contained an amendment with a call to trigger the EU’s rule-of-law conditionality mechanism against Slovakia, a step which could potentially freeze billions in EU funds for the country.
German Green MEP Daniel Freund, the lead author of the rather technical budget discharge report for the financial year 2024, justified the inclusion of the amendment by saying that the government of Robert Fico has been systematically weakening institutions and the rule of law in Slovakia, which is putting EU taxpayer money at risk.
Specifically, he highlighted amendments to the Criminal Code, the abolition of the corruption-fighting National Crime Agency and Special Prosecutor’s Office, as well as the attempt to abolish the Whistleblower Protection Office – all of which critics say are designed to get allies of Fico’s Smer party who have been arrested or are being investigated off the hook and facilitate further corruption.
“All of this means for us and for the parliament that there is an increased risk to the European budget. Therefore, the [European] Commission should initiate a procedure for compliance with European legislation and, at the end of this procedure, freeze European funds for Slovakia unless the necessary changes are made by the current government,” the SME daily reported Freund as saying.
Now that the European Parliament has proposed the European Commission launch its mechanism for protecting the EU budget, the so-called conditionality regulation, the next phrase of the procedure could either involve the Commission ignoring the recommendation of the MEPs or formally warning the Slovak government about possible violations and demand it remedy them.
If it decides on the latter and the country subsequently fails to comply, it could apply a freezing of billions in funds. However, such a step would need to be approved by member states in the Council of the EU. A qualified majority would be enough to do so.
If a conditionality mechanism is triggered against Slovakia, that would follow similar actions taken against Hungary and Poland when they were governed by anti-EU, populist governments.
After the 2023 election brought Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform-led coalition to power, the European Commission released over 75 billion euros in blocked funds in February 2024 and closed the Article 7 proceedings in May 2024, noting a positive restoration of rule-of-law standards.
Hungary’s new prime minister, Peter Magyar, was in Brussels on Wednesday for top-level meetings with the European Commission as he tries to unlock roughly 10 billion euros in Covid recovery funds, which were frozen over rule-of-law and corruption concerns about the government of his predecessor, Viktor Orban.
