Decisions: Clen 7 DEU

Hungary filed an action before the ECJ, requesting it to annul the Regulation on the general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget, based on the following arguments: (i) there is no legal basis for the Regulation, (ii) only Article 7 TEU grants the EU the power to examine and establish violations of the values contained in Article 2 TEU and impose sanctions and (iii) the Regulation breached the principle of legal certainty. The ECJ rejected these arguments and dismissed the action thus allowing the EC to activate the conditionality mechanism against Hungary without any hesitation.

Poland filed an action before the ECJ, requesting it to annul the Regulation on the general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget, based on the following arguments: (i) there is no legal basis for the Regulation, (ii) only Article 7 TEU grants the EU the power to examine and establish violations of the values contained in Article 2 TEU and impose sanctions and (iii) the Regulation breached the principle of legal certainty. The ECJ rejected these arguments and dismissed the action thus allowing the EC to activate the conditionality mechanism against member states without any hesitation.