Bloomberg: Hungary needs judicial independence to get EU money

The Hungarian government has a lot of work to do to get access to the European Union funds withheld by the European Commission. Now they have to add another task to their list. According to the Bloomberg article, the Hungarian government also needs to work on the independence of the judiciary.

Hungary must take steps to strengthen the independence of the judiciary. This is not part of the 17 commitments the government promised to make by the 19 November deadline. These measures are necessary for the European Commission to conclude its rule of law procedure to protect EU funds, hvg.hu writes.

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If the Hungarian government fails to perform properly, the proposal would block HUF 3000 billion (EUR 7.5 bn) in EU funds. Once the procedure is over, we can move on to negotiating the concrete resources, the recovery fund and the seven-year budget.

Bloomberg reports that the recovery fund may also need to strengthen the independence of the Hungarian judiciary.

“This is not just about fighting corruption, it’s also about the independence of the judiciary,” EU justice commissioner Didier Reynders told the news agency. “If we want to go further in the plan, we have to take into account the different reforms that have been requested in the different proceedings,” Reynders added.

Brussels’ criticism of the independence of the judiciary does not come as a surprise to the Hungarian government. This problem has been recurring for years. The European Commission proposes that the Hungarian government strengthen judicial independence.

Source: hvg.hu, bloomberg