Justice minister: Idea of rule of law being used as political tool

The minister noted that Hungary and Poland have challenged the mechanism in the European Union budget linking EU funding to the rule of law in the Court of Justice of the European Union, arguing that it “seriously infringes on legal certainty” and should not be allowed to remain in force.

Varga said the mechanism violated the principle of legal certainty requiring the application of a law to have a predictable outcome. “If this requirement isn’t met, arbitrariness remains the only option,” the minister said.

In a Facebook post in which she shared her article, Varga said that if the conditionality mechanism had to be applied by a lawyer, “they’d be in big trouble and probably wouldn’t even take the job.”

Varga compared the mechanism to the idea of the penal code consisting of the single provision “you must be a good person”.