EU Parliament accuses von der Leyen of making a dirty deal with Orbán

Did the EU Commission allow itself to be blackmailed by Viktor Orbán? The EU Parliament wants the European Court of Justice to review this, and the Liberals are even threatening Ursula von der Leyen with a vote of no confidence.

EBlackmail – the word echoed again and again through the Strasbourg plenary hall of the European Parliament on Wednesday. Liberals and Greens in particular took issue with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Moritz Körner from the FDP summed up the accusation like this: “You spent ten billion on Orbán going to the toilet once.” This was referring to the European Council in mid-December. The Hungarian Prime Minister gave up his veto against the start of accession negotiations with Ukraine by briefly leaving the room and a consensus could be established inside. A day earlier, the EU Commission had certified that Budapest had met the requirements for judicial reform and could now access 10.2 billion euros from the Cohesion Fund.

The commission assured that everything had happened properly, even if the timing was unfortunate. There was relief among the heads of state and government about the decision in favor of Kiev. But the pro-European forces in the European Parliament were beside themselves. Von der Leyen had ignored an appeal from the parliamentary group leaders not to release the money yet. Now the MPs are back from the Christmas break and their anger has not subsided. In fact, they are even more worried because the next European Council is coming up on February 1st. The special meeting is intended to convince Orbán to give up his opposition to supporting Ukraine with 50 billion euros over the next four years.