3 ms·
There is Article 7, which can result in the suspension of the voting rights of the member state, but it's pretty slow. They have also been working on new mechan
by atleta 5y ago
There is Article 7, which can result in the suspension of the voting rights of the member state, but it's pretty slow. They have also been working on new mechanisms exactly because of rule of law violations by some member states (including Poland and Hungary). Poland is actually being sanctioned, AFAIK, for 1M EUR/day as of now for some violation. I think it's related to their restrictive abortion laws (and they are ignoring the ruling of the European Court, or something like that).
This is besides withholding the funds, which have been mentioned by others and which is happening to Hungary as of now. They are withholding 7.2 billion EURs of the reconstruction fund due to claims of high corruption and an inadequate legal structure and thus control over how it's being spent. (I.e. they can't see the guarantees that a sizeable chunk of it won't be stolen and/or spent on things other than what it's intended for.) And it is, indeed a direct consequence (one of the direct consequences) of the lack of adequate rule of law. No wonder: the very reason these guys dismantle democracy is to seize more power, keep the power and to steal us much as they can. (Which is, besides the obvious personal motivations, is a requisite for operating their power structure.)
EDIT: typos.
- garaetjjte 5y ago>Poland is actually being sanctioned, AFAIK, for 1M EUR/day as of now for some violation. That's 0.5M/day related to dispute with Czechs over environmental impact of Turów mine. It seems PiS strategy for negotiating with Czechs is just completely ignoring them, which lead ECJ to impose fines.
- atleta 5y agoThen there are multiple parallel sanctions. There is a 1M/day one as well and it's related to the rule of law. I was wrong, it's not about the abortion act but about the independence of courts [1] [2]. (As far as I can understand they created a system where judges can be disciplined and that is deemed to allow political control over them and their decisions.) [1] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-top-court-orders-poland-pay-1-million-euros-day-rule-law-row-2021-10-27/ https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-top-court-orders-pol... [2] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-top-court-orders-poland-pay-1-million-euros-day-rule-law-row-2021-10-27/ https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-top-court-orders-pol...
- dahfizz 5y agoWhat power does the EU have to collect fines if Poland refuses to pay? Genuine question.
- vasco 5y agoEU gives Poland loads of money every year. Just stop the money faucet.
- scyzoryk_xyz 5y agoNot abortion laws, we’re being fined for the unlawful constitutionally judiciary reforms which were done in 2015 when they took power. PiS (Law and Justice) leader has been obsessed with this idea for decades. By basically jamming the constitutional tribunal Jaroslaw Kaczyński has grabbed the entire judiciary system by the balls, which in many complex ways cements PiS power into place. My understanding has been that also the EU has considered withdrawing EU funding to apply pressure, but they can’t really because they’re worried that PiS would then hypnotize Poles into asking for PolExit. You couldn’t make this shit up. The abortion is a whole other subject here you don’t even wanna know ¯\_(ಠ_ಠ)_/¯