On December 17, the Financial Times newspaper reported that some EU officials were considering reactivating a punishment procedure for rule of law breaches under Article 7 of one of the primary EU treaties, which allows for the suspension of a member state's voting rights.
"We are not going to resort to that [Article 7] at present. The European Commission indicates that certain measures have been taken ... In fact, Hungary has made some progress. Is there a need to move on? Yes, it is obvious," De Croo told Le Soir newspaper in an interview out Saturday.
De Croo also said that the EU's recent decision to release billions of euros in cohesion funds for Hungary was taken more quickly than usual, and confessed that everyone feared that Budapest would veto Ukraine's EU accession talks, which never happened.
In mid-December, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban vetoed an increase in the EU budget for 2024-2027, including 50 billion euros ($55 billion) in macro-financial aid to Kiev. At the same time, Orban did not vote against launching EU accession talks with Ukraine, but warned that Budapest would have "75 more opportunities" to block this process.
The European Commission acknowledged that Hungary was no longer in breach of the rule of law and agreed to release 10 billion euros ($11 billion) in frozen funds a day before EU leaders voted at a summit to launch accession negotiations with Ukraine.
In mid-September 2022, the Commission proposed to launch a special budget conditionality mechanism for Hungary, citing violations of the rule of law in the country. The mechanism blocked the provision of some 7.5 billion euros to Hungary.