Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism for Member States of the European Union Upheld by the EU Court of Justice, Rejecting Court Actions by Hungary and Poland: What Does This Mean for the EU?

Which European Union (EU) Member States are qualified to obtain EU money?

The EU's official judicial answer is now clear:
only those Member States that respect "the Rule of Law".

See in this regard the EuroNews.com article at ECJ [European Court of Justice] rules in favour of making EU cash handouts conditional on a country's respect for rule of law 

and the article video here.

The decision-making court in the case, the EU Court of Justice, the European Union's highest court, was tweeted at Twitter via the EUCourtPress as follows:

#ECJ rejects the actions brought by #Hungary and #Poland against the #EUBudget conditionality mechanism on the respect of the #RuleOfLaw by Member States @Europarl_EN @EUCouncil
— EU Court of Justice (@EUCourtPress) February 16, 2022

The ultimate consequences of this decision by the EU Court of Justice on the EU application of the "Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism" are still unclear, although the holding has potentially unsettling ramifications for the European Union, exposing problematical differences between "East" and "West" Member States in their views on democracy and sovereignty. How are these differences to be remedied in a healthy union?

 

As written at EuroNews.com:

"How did the ECJ case come about?

Budapest [Hungary] and Warsaw [Poland] brought the legal action against the European Parliament and the EU Council, the bloc's two co-legislators, in early 2021.

During the legal case, the institutions were supported by interventions from the European Commission, which drafted the original proposal, as well as from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Spain, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden [all Member States in the West]." [material in brackets added]

The "Rule of Law" question decided by the EU Court of Justice can also be seen as significant in view of the current Ukraine situation as regards Russia and NATO. Ukraine is located on the ancient trade route between East and West. It is a place of geopolitical conflict historically.

See in this regard:

• Jonathan Masters, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Ukraine: Conflict at the Crossroads of Europe and Russia
  
  
• NATO Multimedia Library, LibGuide, NATO-Russia Relations, About the Controversy over the 'NATO Expansion' Point during Reunification Negotiations
  
  
• Michael Mccgwire and Michael Clarke, NATO expansion: ‘a policy error of historic importance’, International Affairs, October 2008, 84(6):1281 - 1301, DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2346.2008.00769.x