EU alert: Commissioner Serafin demands rule-of-law conditionality in budget talks

Piotr Serafin, the EU’s budget and anti-fraud commissioner, told a European Parliament plenary that the European Union’s rule-of-law conditionality mechanism should be maintained within the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) so that the common budget can support national reforms aimed at strengthening the rule of law.

In a debate late Monday over protecting the EU’s financial interests, the commissioner said there should be no doubt that access to community funding would continue to be conditional on member states’ respect for the rule of law.

Fidesz reaction

András László, an MEP of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz, said the EU was withholding funds due to Hungary partly because of the Hungarian government’s refusal to support the war in Ukraine, illegal migration, and “gender ideology”.

Meanwhile, he said “the scandal around NGO financing has reached Brussels”, and he quoted a report by the European Audit Office suggesting that financing was not transparent and “it is not even properly defined what is not a government agency”.

The EU “simply accepts that certain organisations declare themselves as NGOs, while on some crucial political matters the European Commission refers to them as organisations representing the will of European voters,” he added.

“Hungary’s largest organisations, feigning to be civil bodies, receive most of their financing from abroad rather than from private individuals in Hungary,” László said. “We must put an end to the political shadow rule and the political lobby in disguise,” he adding, calling for a screening of the system.

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