Sweden and Finland have sent a joint letter to the European Commission asking to strengthen the control over the respect of the rule of law, increasingly linking this condition to the possibility of receiving EU funds, including those of the Common Agricultural Policy. A move that seems to be addressed to Viktor Orban’s Hungary, the country that is increasingly in the dock for accusations of violations of the rule of law. The document, signed by the respective foreign ministers, ended up on the table of the European Affairs ministers at the EU General Affairs Council. The proposal aims to include issues such as corruption among violations of the rule of law and to link respect for democratic principles also to obtaining EU funding.
The letter
“All Member States must adhere to our common values, in particular the rule of law, democracy and respect for fundamental rights. Unfortunately, reality has shown the need for a more active policy in the area of the rule of law”, reads the letter addressed to the Brussels executive, which is reminded of its key role in protecting the values of the Union and the rights of European citizens. The two Nordic countries also ask to include a “results-based approach”, in which funding is closely linked to respect for the rule of law. But how to do it? The letter contains some proposals.
The two ministers for European Affairs, Jessica Rosencrantz (Sweden) and Joakim Strand (Finland), have proposed strengthening the General Regulation on conditionality for the protection of the EU budget. This is a new regulation that, according to the two, could already be applied to any fund provided by the European Union. Conditionality means linking the disbursement of funds to compliance with certain conditions, in this case compliance with the rule of law.
Sweden and Finland stress that citizens need to “have confidence that common funds are used appropriately and responsibly” in accordance with the treaties. To this end, they call for a broader mechanism than the aforementioned regulation to specifically address spending programmes.
The billions of euros in subsidies distributed by the EU under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) should also be subject to stricter checks on compliance with the rule of law, according to the governments in Helsinki and Stockholm. Although the CAP represents around a third of the total EU budget, it currently does not include protection mechanisms comparable to those applied to other funds, such as cohesion funds. The initiative of the two countries aims to make CAP funding conditional on compliance with democratic principles, obliging all member states to comply. If these criteria are violated, Helsinki and Stockholm argue that the European Commission should suspend or block the disbursement of funds, as it already does for other categories of funding.
The Hungarian case
It is clear to everyone that Hungary is not among the countries that respect the rule of law. In the last EU report published in July, the country led by President Viktor Orbán did not make any progress in this regard. At the beginning of 2024, the Commission had already suspended almost 22 billion euros in funds to Budapest due to non-compliance with the rule of law, half of which remains frozen.
The fact that now it is precisely the governments of Sweden and Finland, both respectively supported or composed of parties close to Orban’s Fidesz, that are addressing the European Commission in these terms. Both the True Finns party that is in government in Finland, and the Sweden Democrats, who instead ensure external support to the Stockholm executive, sit in the EU Parliament on the benches of the Conservatives and Reformists (Ecr), together with Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, a radical right-wing group close to the Patriots of the Hungarian leader.
The new Commissioner for Democracy, Justice and the Rule of Law
The request from Sweden and Finland appears to be in line with the EU strategy, especially after the presentation of the new European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen. The president has given Micheal McGrath, appointed Commissioner for Democracy, Justice and the Rule of Law, the task of strengthening the conditionality mechanisms, working closely with the person responsible for the Budget to cut funds to those countries that violate community principles. Hungary first and foremost.
