Press conference on the latest developments of the Rule of Law conditionality regulation: Commission’s upcoming evaluation of the 17 remedial measures by Hungary. Statements by Petri SARVAMAA (EPP,FI), Eider GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL (S&D, ES), co-rapporteurs, and by Moritz KÖRNER (Renew, DE), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA, DE). This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

Brussels

statement

press conference

EU mechanism on democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights (T)

EU - Hungary (T)

SARVAMAA, Petri (EPP, FI)

GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL, Eider (S&D, ES)

FREUND, Daniel (Greens/EFA, DE)

KÖRNER, Moritz (Renew, DE)

Press conference on the EU Commission’s upcoming evaluation of the 17 remedial measures by Hungary by Petri SARVAMAA (EPP, FI), Eider GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL (S&D, ES), co-rapporteurs, Moritz KÖRNER (Renew, DE) and by Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA, DE)

SOUNDBITE (English), Petri SARVAMAA (EPP,FI), Thank you. And good morning, everyone. Indeed, we are finally approaching finally the really literally the moment, the historical moment. It's been over four years since Commission proposed the regulation, on the conditionality, on the rule of law and the budget. And it's been a long road. It's been a hard road, I would say over four years ago in 2018, there was almost no one in Brussels who thought that we would ever be here in the first place.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petri SARVAMAA (EPP,FI), But so now we are just a couple of days away from the final deadline for Hungary to show whether they have abided by what is expected of them in this particular scrutiny. Now, it has to be said that the Commission narrowed down and focussed only on certain things, mostly on corruption. And the conflict of interest on public procurement.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petri SARVAMAA (EPP,FI), This I see that happened because Commission really wanted to walk the tightrope over the Niagara Falls, so to speak, and get this delivered unto the goal so that it's narrow enough to really to be delivered. And this is a test, of course, for the whole mechanism as we know, there's already talk about maybe expanding the idea of conditionality to other things in the budget and in with the member states.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petri SARVAMAA (EPP,FI), So it's really an important test. And Here today we are giving you our assessment of how Hungary is doing. There's only two days left, so practically nothing will be done anymore. And then the Commission will, according to our information, give their assessment next Tuesday. If they don't postpone it by another week.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petri SARVAMAA (EPP,FI), In any case, we are getting really close and our assessment is that although Hungary is making headway and is going to the right direction. If we look and others will explain this more, if we look into the 17 measures, the remedial measures, it is simply impossible to come to the conclusion that this would erase completely risking affecting the European budget and the sound financial management of the European budget in Hungary.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petri SARVAMAA (EPP,FI), So we we indeed expect the commission to evaluate the situation next week in a way that will keep and maintain that the risk is still there and that in their assessment, they will keep the proposal on the Council implementing decision. Now, whether it will be exactly the same amount, this remains to be seen to us. I think it absolutely the most important thing that this conditionality mechanism doesn't fail now, because it would be extremely difficult to start this anew.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petri SARVAMAA (EPP,FI), Should we now come to the conclusion that there is no risk anymore in Hungary after these 17 measures are being implemented or are underway of becoming to be implemented. So this is our basic core assessment. And I will not say more because others will have also to say. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Eider GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL (S&D, ES), Good morning, everyone. My colleague Petri Sarvamaa was explaining things. How did we get here? Where did we begin that would allow us to assess the current situation? And all this began four years ago with this conditionality mechanism. We mustn't forget what the main objective of the regulation is. It is there to protect the budget. It's not about punishing governments. It's not about freezing funds.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Eider GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL (S&D, ES), The aim is protecting the budget and ensuring that the rule of law is upheld in the member states. Based on the conditionality mechanism, we as the parliament have often asked, the Commission evaluate the situation in Hungary. The Commission analysis pointed out that there were shortcomings or deficiencies in various areas.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Eider GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL (S&D, ES), And as Petri said, the main focus was on dealing with corruption and public procurement issues. Once public procurement and corruption had been looked at and then the possible sanctions were looked at and it was less than 10 percent that was chosen for, we thought it could have been more. As regards the rule of law has been negotiations with the Hungarian government and now 17 remedial measures have been put forward.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Eider GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL (S&D, ES), We've looked at these 17 measures. Our view is that only two of the seventeen are truly adequate. And of the seventeen that have been put forward, only three have been implemented thus far. Some there hasn't been the willingness and some will require a long term perspective. So if we look at the whole package, if we look at the whole area of scope that the Commission can act within, and if we looked at all of the areas that the Commission has pinpointed regarding rule of law.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Eider GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL (S&D, ES), We boil that down to three measures that have been implemented and two that are adequate. So can we say that the conditionality mechanism is working well?, Can we say that the commission is applying this mechanism correctly? And we have to ask ourselves, our protecting the budget.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Eider GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL (S&D, ES), That's the underlying goal of this regulation. And so a clear and resounding answer to all these questions is no. So we asked the Commission to maintain the proposal to freeze funds to keep that on the table. The European Commission assessment does differ from ours. So even if I wanted to be magnanimous with the Hungarian government and say that many of the measures were adequate.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Eider GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL (S&D, ES), Actually the deadline hasn't been complied with and nothing has changed in this month or two. So we cannot say that the rule of law issue has been solved. We cannot say that the budget has been safeguarded. That is all the more reason to ask for the Commission to keep its proposal on the table and to not liberate or unblock the funds.

SOUNBITE (English), Moritz KÖRNER (Renew, DE), Yeah, thank you. And good morning also from my side. I think the colleagues already mentioned a lot and where we play we are. But I want to clearly have one message. I think the Commission is taking this new mechanism in the completely wrong way and interpreting it in the completely wrong way, because the Commission is not using what the mechanism allows.

SOUNBITE (English), Moritz KÖRNER (Renew, DE), It actually, the mechanism says if there is a danger for the rule of law, there can be sanctions in place. And what the Commission is doing now is hurrying so much until this deadline. It set for itself that we actually will see that there will not be the right implementation in place. We as negotiators have a different view. The conditionality allows to hold back money.

SOUNBITE (English), Moritz KÖRNER (Renew, DE), And then at any point in time, Hungary can go forward with new evidence showing that they actually solved the measures and at any time the Commission could decide to give the money to Hungary. So there's no hurry. Hungary has and also the Commission only propose to hold back two thirds of the cohesion funds.

SOUNBITE (English), Moritz KÖRNER (Renew, DE), So the First Third could flow, and especially in the beginning of a cohesion period, that would be enough money. So there is no hurry. The hurry is created by the Commission and that is a wrong interpretation of the regulation. We also and maybe Daniel go more deeply into that. We we looked into the seventeen measures and we looked at two parts.

SOUNBITE (English), Moritz KÖRNER (Renew, DE), Firstly, is the measure adequate to combat the rule of law problems or the corruption problems? And secondly, is there a formal implementation of the measure? And I think if you look into our text to see one of the most used phrases, no assessment possible until 19 November, and we think that this is still also true for the Commission.

SOUNBITE (English), Moritz KÖRNER (Renew, DE), So we call on the Commission to hold back the money and to actually see and wait if there is evidence that the measures are really in place and are effective. And one last comment from my side. If the Commission now releases the funds to Viktor Orban, also Ursula von der Leyen will be personally responsible for turning Hungary into a swamp of corruption. That is our assessment.

SOUNBITE (English), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA, DE), Good morning, everyone. So our four political groups have been fighting for four years now for the European Union to take the situation in Hungary more serious. We have a degree of corruption, including with EU funds that is not comparable with any other member state. The corruption that is coordinated, organised, protected by the highest office in Hungary, by the prime minister, Viktor Orban.

SOUNBITE (English), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA, DE), Whitin as the European Union, struggling for years now to deal with that situation for over four years now, there is an Article seven procedure, and the four of us with with some further colleagues have fought for this regulation to be able to freeze funding in this state of corruption and with these kind of violations of of the rule of law in Hungary.

SOUNBITE (English), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA, DE), Unfortunately, as colleagues have said, despite the enormity of the problems in Hungary, the Commission only used this mechanism now in a very restrained way. I find it deplorable that for a rule of law, conditionality, they seem to have forgotten the rule of law, because there is not a single measure in these 17 that makes prosecution more independent and it is politically controlled in Hungary.

SOUNBITE (English), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA, DE), There's not a single measure that makes judges more independent. And we know that particularly at the appeals level, the highest courts in Hungary are all members are appointed by now by Viktor Orban. And there is a strong political control of the court systems. Commission focussed only on procurement and on public tenders and the fight against corruption.

SOUNBITE (English), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA, DE), The measure that I understand Commission is most proud of is the creation of an AT well, an integrity authority. You can see that we judge that is an inaccurate step. The problem is now, if even by tomorrow, let's assume that were the best anti-corruption body in the world in Hungary, by miracle, then this body, the way that it's being set up now, still doesn't have the power to prosecute.

SOUNBITE (English), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA, DE), So it still means that any case they investigate ultimately needs a politically controlled prosecutor to brings it to court. And at least at the appeals level, it will land at a captured court that is unlikely to put the likes of Orbán son in law, his father, his childhood friend will sentence them. And we know that they are the ones that have been at the forefront of corruption in Hungary.

SOUNBITE (English), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA, DE), So not only are a large majority of these measures and you can see the full table in our documents and for those following online. We'll obviously send this out and put it on the website after this press conference, you can see that the measures are not only inadequate, but even if all these measures were implemented by the 19th, well, there not enough to fix corruption in Hungary.

SOUNBITE (English), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA, DE), But we also see that most of these measures actually are not implemented, not fully implemented and that actually a number of these five of these measures, the Commission itself has already said that the monitoring period for those can go as far as 2026. So the Commission fully admits that these many of these measures you cannot tell today, tomorrow or on Saturday if they have actually been implemented.

SOUNBITE (English), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA, DE), How are you going to judge whether the share of tendering procedures where there is only one offer is actually going down? This needs a longer time period. So what we are saying is it's too early to say whether there is actually a change in Hungary. We have seen over 12 years that Orbán time and again, has made promises to make concessions, to make changes to the EU. And time and again, we have seen that the situation ended up turning out worse.

SOUNBITE (English), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA, DE), So what we're saying is, let us check First whether there is now an actual change and not just a law that has been hurried through the Parliament decision in committee in the afternoon, plenary vote in the evening without any amendments, without any expert consultation or anything.

SOUNBITE (English), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA, DE), We want to see the real effect on the ground. So there needs to be a longer term monitoring. And while this monitoring takes place, there needs to be funding frozen so that there is an incentive for Hungary to keep working on this. And as Moritz Körner has explained, given the proposal on the table with only freezing sixty five percent, this would have no immediate cash flow issue in Hungary.

SOUNBITE (English), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA, DE), They have money for over two years. But during this period, we want to see that there's actual change and that this money is finally going to those Hungarians for whom this money is intended and not Orban's family and friends. Thank you very much.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petri SARVAMAA (EPP,FI), Thank you, Mr. Freund. And those are the question time. Questions are for journalists only. And we'll start by taking just one question per journalist. And please, before asking your question, introduce yourselves, the media you're representing and to whom you would like to ask your question. And we also have some journalists connected online. But let's start with the questions from the room, please.

Q&amp;A Question on the meaning of Hungary reform and the time of implementation these 17 measures.

Q&amp;A Question on the efficient of these 17 measures and their implementation.

Q&amp;A Question on the methodology followed in your assesment of release the funds.

Q&amp;A Question on the stage of negotations with Hungarian recovery plan.