Financial Tools – A Way to Approach the Rule of Law?

Abstract

The rule of law is the hot topic of these days. Especially Poland and Hungary have been for the past eight years proving that they are not afraid to backslide from the values on which the Union is founded, the rule of law among them. The lengthy process on determining whether there exists a ‘clear risk of serious breach’ of the fundamental values by these two Member States, while having a few judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU, proves that the political sanctions envisaged in Article 7 TEU are not an effective tool in dealing with such Member States. Accordingly, this article intends to show the ineffectiveness of political tools and to inquire whether the financial tools contained in the Conditionality Regulation, Common Provision Regulation, and Resilience and Recovery Regulation could be a more effective solution in this regard.