Don’t give in to Hungarian PM’s blackmail over frozen billions, warn EU party leaders

The heads of Europe’s largest political groups are ready to warn Brussels: Don’t give Hungary billions of euros in frozen funds until the country completely resolves its rule-of-law problems.

“We would like to express our deep concern as regards the imminent positive assessment of the Hungarian judicial reforms,” reads a draft letter obtained by POLITICO and due to be signed by the heads of the European People’s Party, the Socialists and Democrats, Renew Europe and the Greens. While the letter has not yet been published, people directly aware of the letter at all four parties confirmed their leaders had signed or planned to sign it.

According to senior EU officials, the European Commission plans to unblock €10 billion in frozen funds for Hungary ahead of a key gathering of leaders this week where Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is threatening to block a major package of European financial aid for Ukraine, as well as the opening of accession talks to the bloc for Kyiv.

“In our view, the horizontal enabling conditions have not been fulfilled,” it goes on, referring to the conditions laid out by the European Commission for the funds to be released, which include far-reaching judicial reforms.

EU officials argue Budapest has fulfilled the rule-of-law requirements and that the funds’ release is unrelated to Orbán’s threat.

But on Tuesday, the Hungarian leader’s political director appeared to link Hungary’s stance to the frozen funds, saying that Budapest would continue to block further aid for Ukraine unless the Commission releases all the money it has blocked.

Giving in to this request would be a mistake because Hungary hasn’t lived up to its commitments to Brussels, argue Manfred Weber, Terry Reintke, Stéphane Séjourné and Iratxe García in their letter.

Specifically, the EU’s conditions include adopting legal amendments to address deficiencies on judicial independence, and making sure those amendments are being applied.

“This is clearly not the case,” the letter states.

While Hungary is meant to strengthen its National Judicial Council, the signatories point out that elections for this body are ongoing and not expected to finish before mid-January.

Given concerns that “the decision making is not independent of the government’s interests,” the letter argues, “a positive assessment before this date undermines the purpose of the milestone.”

“It is impossible to assess whether the National Judicial Council will be independent not only on paper, but also in its composition,” it reads. “Until that is the case, all reforms strengthening its position could be void.”

The letter concludes with a warning about new threats to the rule of law in Hungary — namely a proposal for a “defence sovereignty law” that would “enable the Prime Minister to create a new authority directly under his control, equipped with sweeping powers without any democratic supervision.”