THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION. Reforming Europe in a time of war

The Rule of Law Situation in the European Union 67 media and the right of Klubrádió to use the radio spectrum 45 , alleging Hungary’s direct failure to fulfil its obligations regarding the protection of the values of Article 2. True, the Commission has referred Hungary to the Court in around a dozen cases over the last 10 years for infringing European rules on, for example, non-discrimination, failure to respect the freedom to provide services in the field of education, or for being contrary to the principles on matters of migration pol- icy, but unlike in the case of Poland this is the first time that the Commission has targeted Hungary directly for breach of Article 2 TEU. As far as the application of the financial condition- ality mechanism is concerned, the Court judgment of 16 February upholding the legality and proportionality of the mechanism established by Regulation 2020/2092, it introduces a kind of macro-conditionality by recalling that “compliance by a Member State with the values contained in Article 2 TEU is a condition for the enjoy- ment of all the rights deriving from the application of the Treaties” 46 . And its effects have been felt at once, since on 27 April this year the Commission adopted the guidelines and the methodology for applying the Regulation, in accordance with the commitments undertaken with the European Council in its session on 10 and 11 Decem- ber 2020, taking into consideration the judgment of the Court 47 and, pursuant to Article 6.1 of the Regulation, finding reasonable grounds to open the conditionality procedure, it sent Hungary formal notification of the fac- tual elements and specific grounds on which it based its findings. Currently, the Commission is in discussions with the Hungarian authorities, based on its observations/re- sponses to the findings of the Commission, over how to find a satisfactory solution for both parties, without 45  Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/ en/inf_22_3768 46  Point 144 of the judgment. See De Gregorio Merino, Alberto: op. cit., pp. 19-20. 47  C(2022) 1382 final Guidelines on the application of the general regime of conditionality regulation. which the Commission should submit a proposal for an implementing decision to the Council with the appropri- ate measures. With regard to the annual report on the rule of law in the Union 2022 48 , this third report maintains the meth- odology and structure introduced since the first report in 2020, that is, 27 chapters resting on four pillars. Based on a qualitative assessment of the positive and negative developments relative to the 2021 report, this year the report contains certain new features, cov- ering fresh topics such as public service media outlets (1); and includes a review of the most relevant Euro- pean Court of Human Rights case law as regards the rule of law (2). However, the most important new feature consists of including a series of specific recommendations for each of the EU states, with the declared objective of helping the states in their efforts to undertake reforms, underscoring positive developments and pinpointing nec- essary improvements. This will enable, in the next report in 2023, an assessment of the implementation of the recommendations. How are the main recommendations set out? Justice systems reforms 49 The report notes that justice system reforms with a view to strengthening judicial independence were at the heart of the Union’s political agenda in 2021-2022. In this respect, there were significant reforms as far as the composition and powers of judiciary governing bodies were concerned; in the improvement of the selection procedures of judges and in the strengthening of the autonomy of the prosecution services. In addition, there was also a positive development regarding the efficiency 48  COM(2022) 500 final of 13 July 2022 previously mentioned. 49  Pages 5 to 10 COM(2022)500 final.