The EU cannot operate unless member-states respect the rule of law. Withholding EU funds is a powerful tool to enforce compliance, but it has yet to show its teeth.
The rule of law, one of the EU’s founding values, has deteriorated in several member-states. The worst declines have taken place in Hungary and Poland. The Hungarian government, under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has systematically undermined judicial independence, media freedoms and civil society, dismantling democratic institutions and consolidating power in its hands. Poland’s previous Law and Justice government, in power between 2015 and 2023, similarly politicised the judiciary, introducing unconstitutional laws and tightening control over the courts; it also captured the public broadcaster and launched smear campaigns against critics.
The declines in the rule of law have far-reaching consequences that go beyond Hungary and Poland. The rule of law underpins the single market and is key for the EU’s common legal and security framework: it fosters trust and transparency and allows citizens and companies to thrive. The EU has therefore introduced measures to tackle the deterioration, most significantly, it has started applying rule of law conditionality before handing out EU money.
The Commission has so far deployed rule of law conditionality twice, suspending EU funding to Poland and Hungary in late 2022. The suspensions covered only part of the funding due to them – the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and the Cohesion Funds, intended to ease regional disparities and help poorer member-states – but prompted Poland and Hungary to enact legal changes. These changes, however, failed to remedy the situation in full.
In late 2024, the new Commission announced plans to further strengthen rule of law conditionality. This insight looks at what we can learn from previous funding suspensions and what the future holds for the use of conditionality to enforce the rule of law.
About the Author
Zselyke Csaky is a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform.