The amendments to law No. XC of 2017 on criminal proceedings in connection with the conditionality procedure, passed by 136 votes for with 7 against and 14 abstentions, according to the country's parliament website.
The conditionality regime, which came into force in January 2021, is a tool to protect EU funds from being misused by member states that do not adequately uphold the rule of law, which works by withholding EU funding from delinquent states.
Hungary is the first country to have fallen foul of this mechanism. In April, 2022, the EU Commission raised concerns about systematic irregularities in public procurement, insufficiencies in addressing conflict of interest, weaknesses in the effective pursuit of investigations in cases involving union funds, and shortcomings in Hungary's anti-corruption practices.
The Hungarian authorities then committed to 17 remedial measures. However, the Commission decided to see what the concrete changes would amount to, and proposed a suspension of 65% of the commitments under cohesion policy, amounting to an estimated 7.5 billion euro, if all the measures Hungary has committed to are not implemented by November 19.