MEPs quiz President Ursula von der Leyen on the achievements of the European Commission in the first two years of its current mandate, in a one-hour-long series of brief questions and answers in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Several questions were on the Rule of Law situation in Hungary and the need to move on the next step. European Commission President Von der Leyen responded that Commissioner Hahn had spoken to the Hungarian authorities to inform them that the letter of formal notification to start the conditionality mechanism had been sent.

statement

debate

LAMBERTS, Philippe (Greens/EFA, BE)

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

EU - Hungary (T)

SÉJOURNÉ, Stéphane (Renew, FR)

VON DER LEYEN, Ursula (DE, EC)

EP question time (T)

Question time with the Ursula von der LEYEN, European Commission President: extracts of the debate on Rule of law and the situation in Hungary

Title: Question time with the Ursula von der LEYEN, European Commission President: extracts of the debate on Rule of law and the situation in Hungary

SOUNDBITE (French), St&#233;phane S&#201;JOURN&#201; (Renew, FR), Renew Europe Group leader, I'm asking you, what do you intend to do about Poland? And Hungary?

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, We put in the request that a major long standing reform, a necessity in Poland, is in the European semester independence of judiciary. So happy to follow up on that. With Hungary, we've been very clear. The issue is corruption and we have been very clear on the Article seven procedure. There are infringements also on other topics we have been discussing with Hungary, questions that are concerning the resilience and recovery fund here. The main requirement for reform is the anti-corruption commission. And we are at the moment being not able to find a common ground. And to conclude and then with 13 seconds left, there's the big topic of the question of the conditionality mechanism. And I'm happy to respond with fresh time on that.

SOUNDBITE (French), Philippe LAMBERTS (Greens/EFA, BE), Greens/EFA Group leader, Going on from what Stephane is saying, the second victim, the collateral victim of political will, that will be the rule of law within the European Union. We are quite clearly have problems, as you've mentioned. I'd like you to talk about what you intend to do in the coming weeks, because in Hungary, we've seen the results of total control of the media by the powers,

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, We've sent a letter to Hungary with questions they have answered and we've carefully assessed the result of these questions. And our conclusion is we have to move on the next step. And therefore, the Commissioner Hahn has today spoken to the Hungarian authorities and informed them that we will now sent the letter of formal notification to start the conditionality mechanism (applause). As you know, this triggers a procedure that has specific timelines. So a process is going on.