Hungary and Poland will challenge the rule of law test agreed at the EU summit.
Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga told a Hungarian radio program on Friday that the country will file a case with the European Court of Justice and the Polish Prime Minister announced that his country is doing the same.
At the summit, the heads of government, including from Hungary and Poland, agreed on additional agreements on the new rule of law rules. With the new rule of law test, the European Commission can cut member states on EU subsidies if the rule of law is so bad that the money goes wrong.
But the EU leaders agreed that member states could challenge the roadmap that the European Commission wants to use for this in the European courts. The committee would not initiate the test until the court has given the green light.
It can just take a year and a half before that happens, the court said. But responsible European Commissioner Vera Jourova thinks it is instead a matter of months. The test could, however, be applied retroactively against abuses from 1 January, as demanded by the Netherlands.