Five ways the EU could send a message to Hungary's Orbán

The portal said Orbán “has been a thorn in Europe’s side for years", and that “patience in Brussels is wearing thin."

So far, Brussels has been unable to lay a glove on Orbán and Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s first vice president, was cautious about taking further steps, saying after an EC meeting on 12 April that “we have to be on a very firm legal ground before we start infringement procedures." Actions taken so far have been mainly on technical issues: but this time the protection of Article 2 of the EU treaties — on core of EU values — is at stake, Timmermans said.

The influential news portal in Brussels added the moment of truth for Orbán could come as early as April 29 at a meeting of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) of which Orbán is a member — as are Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Juncker told fellow commissioners on Wednesday that “it’s time to speak about the truth."

Politico listed five things that EU could do to send a message to Orbán.

1. Kick Fidesz out of the EPP

Orbán’s strongest link to Brussels is his Fidesz party’s membership of the European People’s Party. According to the EPP’s statutes, suspending or excluding a party would need to be approved by the European Parliament at the request of either the party’s president — Frenchman Joseph Daul — or by seven MEPs from five different countries, politico reminded.

“But it’s not in the EPP’s interests to kick out the Hungarians."

The EPP has 216 seats in the Parliament — making it the biggest group, ahead of the Socialists and Democrats on 189 — and losing the 12 Fidesz MEPs would shrink its lead. Plus, Hungarian MEPs are seen as loyal and hard working.

2. Ramp up the infringements

One obvious target for the EU would be to take action over Hungary’s refusal to relocate refugees, politico.eu said. “That would also mean taking on the other Central European problem child, Poland, which has taken the same hard line."

The portal reminded that countries on the frontline of migration such as Italy have pushed for infringement proceedings to be launched and it could help the Commission in its court case against Hungary and Slovakia, which objected to being told they must take in refugees. But it could make harder to reach a deal on reform of EU asylum law.

3. Open a rule-of-law procedure

The portal noted this was the route taken in the case of Poland and, in the worst case scenario, could lead to the suspension of a country’s voting rights.

Politico added, though, that the Commission seems reluctant to go down this path, mainly because Budapest is prepared to talk to Brussels whereas Warsaw is not. As in Poland’s case, securing unanimity among the EU members countries for suspending voting rights would be extremely difficult.

4. Cut off the money

In the 2014-2020 budgetary period, Hungary is slated to receive around 29.6 billion euros in EU funds to finance motorways, railways, energy projects and other schemes in a country whose GDP is around EUR 126 bn a year. It’s an important source of cash for Budapest but the likes of Italy and Sweden are keen to claw back some EU funding if Central European countries are reluctant to host refugees. However, changing the EU’s budget rules before 2020 would be impossible.

5. Send in the independent experts

The European Parliament has already approved a new mechanism for monitoring the rule of law which would set up a panel of independent experts to make country-specific recommendations during an annual fitness check of each EU member. The scheme’s backers say it would make life easier for the Commission because it would be less political. But there’s a problem. “Timmermans knows that he can’t propose [a new monitoring process] because he knows he’ll lose. He has to make sure there’s enough support in Council before he can put a proposal on the table," politico.eu cited Israel Butler, director of advocacy at the Civil Liberties Union for Europe, as saying.

Front page photo by: MTI/EPA/Oliver Hoslet

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• economy,
• european commission,
• politics,
• viktor orbán,
• epp group,
• politico,
• infringement