Billions in funding wrongly released to Hungary, says EU court’s top adviser

The top adviser to the EU’s highest court has said it should annul a decision by the European Commission to unfreeze billions of euros of payments to Hungary that had been suspended because of serious concerns over corruption and the rule of law.Tamara Ćapeta, the advocate general of the European Court of Justice, said on Thursday the commission should not have paid out the funds because Hungary had not actually carried out the judicial reforms that were a condition for their release.The commission suspended payment of funds to the populist, illiberal government of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, in 2022 over concerns about democratic backsliding, arguing it was failing to tackle corruption and ensure judicial independence.A year later, it concluded Hungary had made sufficient changes to meet the requirements for the money to be released and lifted the suspension, making the country eligible to receive about €10bn from various EU funds.The European Parliament filed a complaint in 2024, claiming the EU’s executive had made “manifest errors”. Some MEPs said the commission’s decision, just before a key EU summit that needed Orbán’s support for aid to Ukraine, was politically motivated.The advocate general’s opinions are not legally binding but are often followed by the court’s judges, who are expected to deliver their final decision in the parliament’s case against the commission in the coming months.Ćapeta said the commission had failed to properly assess the reforms to Hungary’s judicial system and had “incorrectly applied the requirements on Hungary when it permitted, without any explanation, the disbursement of the budget”.The executive had not been transparent in its decision-making, she added, concluding: “The commission may not disburse EU funds to a member state until the required legislative reforms are in force and are effectively being applied.”Billions in additional EU funding remain suspended for Hungary, prompting Orbán, the bloc’s disruptor-in-chief, to regularly accuse the commission of interfering in his country’s internal affairs and using payments as a means of coercion.EU law experts have said that if the court does side with parliament, the commission may have to recoup the money by reducing future funding. The ruling will in any event set an important precedent on the commission’s role in rule-of-law cases.Orbán faces the biggest challenge of his 16 years in power in April from the centre-right challenger Péter Magyar and his Tisza party, who has promised to restore the rule of law and repair relations with the EU. Magyar is well ahead in most polls.