Germany’s incoming government, slated to be led by Friedrich Merz of CDU/CSU, looks to punish the EU’s worst offenders.
POLITICO Europe reports that together with their likely center-left coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Merz agreed to demand that the EU withhold funds and suspend voting rights from countries that violate key principles such as the rule of law.
Though Merz and his colleagues don’t call out Hungary by its name, the “draft agreement is clearly referring to the EU’s worst offender, which for years has been accused of taking a wrecking ball to democratic norms, curtailing the freedom of the press and restricting the independence of judges.”
Hungary is notorious for constantly obstructing virtually all EU initiatives, especially those pertaining to helping Ukraine or facilitating its EU integration path.
“Existing protective instruments, from infringement proceedings and the withholding of EU funds to the suspension of membership rights such as voting rights in the Council of the EU, must be applied much more consistently than before,” negotiators from Merz’s conservative bloc and the SPD wrote in a draft coalition agreement on EU politics.
The European Parliament triggered the first phase of the Article 7 procedure against Hungary in 2018. Budapest was accused of “serious breaches” of the EU’s core values and fundamental rights.
