EU mulls stripping Hungary of its vote

The European Parliament will vote on Thursday on a resolution that calls for stripping Hungary of its voting rights at the European Council for its rule of law and democratic principle issues.

The move is widely seen as putting pressure on Hungary, which blocked a four-year funding package of 50 billion euros ($54 billion) to Ukraine from 2024-27 at the European Council Summit in December. Hungary will also assume the presidency of the Council of the European Union during the second half of this year.

Petri Sarvamaa, a member of the European Parliament from Finland, said the five political groups in parliament discussed the resolution on Tuesday morning.

The resolution calls on the European Council to strip Hungary of its voting rights under Article 7.2 of the EU Treaty, which allows the punishment in case of a "serious and persistent breach" by a member state.

But member states must decide unanimously whether the breach is still occurring, to be followed by a vote by a two-thirds majority to suspend the rights of the accused state.

Some political groups also want to dig into the European Commission's decision to unfreeze some 10.2 billion euros in funds for Hungary on the eve of the December EU summit, after Hungary agreed to open accession talks for Ukraine. The commission argued that its decision was made due to judicial reforms undertaken by Hungary.

The groups also want to warn the commission against unfreezing more funds to Hungary in exchange for its support to funding the Ukraine package ahead of the next special EU summit on Feb 1.

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico offered his support to Hungary on Tuesday.

During a joint news conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest, he criticized Brussels for trying to punish Hungary over its stance on the funding package to Ukraine.

"As long as I am the head of the Slovak government, I will never agree that a country should be punished for fighting for its sovereignty. I will never agree with such an attack on Hungary," Fico said.

Separate budget

Orban argued that further financial aid for Ukraine should come from a separate budget rather than from the EU budget.

"If we want to help Ukraine, which is necessary, we must do it in a way that does not damage the EU budget," he said on Tuesday, a view which was backed by Fico.

There are indications that a compromise might be reached over the coming weeks for Hungary to remove its veto of EU funding to Ukraine.

Budapest has floated the idea of splitting the package into four annual envelopes, worth 12.5 billion euros each. It means that unanimous approval is required each year by the 27 EU member states. Budapest also hopes to extend the deadline to spend COVID-19 recovery funds, which would give it more time to unlock the frozen funds.

On Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it is important to engage with all 27 member states to get the 50 billion euros for Ukraine up and running.