The European Parliament loses patience and denounces the European Commission for not punishing Hungary and Poland

• Europe Poland maintains the order to Brussels: "We will never be a province of the European Union"

Ten months. It is the time that the European Parliament has given the European Commission, the guardian of the treaties, to do its job and protect the interests of EU taxpayers. Hungary and Poland have committed flagrant violations of the rule of law and should be punished, the European Parliament believes, and

. The Heads of State and Government asked for patience, the Commission has its hands tied by a pact at the highest level, but MEPs have chosen to take the issue to court, blowing up an almost untenable situation.

The issue is delicate and complicated. In the summer of 2020, the leaders of the 27 agreed on a Recovery Fund of up to 800,000 million euros to face the consequences of the pandemic. But in a five-day marathon summit they also unlocked the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework, the EU Budget, which due to its complexity is not negotiated annually, but every six courses. If in itself it is something very difficult, this time it was worse, because of the Covid and because a new element that had been aspired for a long time was introduced into the package:

The EU's defensive arsenal is limited in the face of internal rule violations. There is the nuclear button, Article 7 of the Treaties that allows, ultimately, to deprive a country of a vote in the Council, something very serious. The Commission invoked it in 2019 in the face of repeated attempts by the Warsaw Government to charge the independence of the judicial system, and it was activated, in another way, with Hungary through a complaint from the European Parliament. But as it demands unanimity, and both countries protect themselves, there is no route. The EU wanted more resources and provided itself with this mechanism, which, in short, allows the Commission to turn off the tap and

common

and values.

The problem was how to reach the agreement. Poland and Hungary could not veto this mechanism, as it did not require unanimity in the Council, but a qualified majority. But what they could do was block the start-up of the entire Recovery Fund, leaving the 27 without joint debt issues to finance economic reactivation without accumulating debt and deficits in the already heavily affected national public accounts. Everything was stopped for months and the Fund was in real danger. In the end, in December 2020,

. On the one hand, they lowered the letter of the mechanism to make it less powerful. But in addition, they reached an agreement with the rest of the leaders, and the Commission, so that this conditionality mechanism would not be activated immediately.

The pact is that Hungary and Poland would appeal to the EU Court of Justice (ironically, which they say has no primacy over national constitutions) denouncing what they consider illegal. And the Commission promised not to move a file until there was a sentence. The case hearing took place in Luxembourg last week, but there is no date for the outcome.

. It has been warning and threatening for months and this Wednesday, on the eve of a European Summit and after the challenge of the Polish Prime Minister

(who was in Strasbourg yesterday before the plenary session), they have acted.

President

today asked the legal services of the European Parliament to prepare a complaint against the Commission for the non-application of the

compliance regulation. The letter to the lawyers comes after a vote in the Parliament's legal affairs committee that recommended bringing the case before the CJEU. Most of the leaders of the political groups, the so-called Conference of Presidents, have supported this action today.

. Last year, Parliament fought with all its might for a mechanism to guarantee this. However, so far the European Commission has been reluctant to use it. The European Union is a community built on the principles of democracy and the rule of law. If they are threatened in a Member State, the EU must act to protect them. That is why I have asked our legal services to prepare a lawsuit against the Commission to ensure that EU rules are applied correctly, "said the Italian.

High community sources explain that they tried to avoid this route, but that Parliament is free

. "If you ask me, they have the right but our interpretation of the December agreement is different and I am sure that legally we are on solid ground. The problem is of a political nature and of the discussion that can be generated, the impression on the public and the institutions What we want is to have a good instrument, a very solid one, bulletproof, and that when it is activated there will be no doubt that any kind. The decision of the CJEU will provide that security ", explain the sources consulted.

The process, legally, will be slow, but it adds more fuel on the eve of the European Council in which the Polish prime minister will defend, before his colleagues and in person, the decision of the Constitutional of his country (a court that the EU does not recognize as independent) to consider part of the Treaties (articles 1 and 19) irreconcilable with its Constitution and question the primacy of community law over national law. And it occurs while

, considering that there are too many doubts precisely about legal certainty.

More fuel for a fire that threatens to poison the entire EU and that could unleash "procedural guerrilla" actions, in the words of a veteran official.

A day-to-day surgical boycott of the EU.

The same thing that Hungary has been doing in Foreign Policy, but perhaps in other areas of more urgency.

Starting, as will be seen this Thursday and Friday, with the green transition, decarbonization and the so-called Fitx55, the community plan for climate neutrality.

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