The EU is letting itself be blackmailed by Hungary

For Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, there is only one lesson to be learned from the compromise reached with the EU this week: blackmail works. With the deal, Hungary has managed to partly unblock EU pay-outs in exchange for lifting its veto on an EU aid package to Ukraine and a minimum global corporate tax rate.

After the EU threatened to suspend €7.5 billion in funds for Hungary, Budapest vetoed the €18 billion aid package that the EU had prepared for Ukraine to keep its economy afloat during the war. Now, thanks to the compromise, the suspended amount of Hungary’s funds will be lower – only € 6.3 billion, or 18 per cent of the total amount that Hungary is set to receive.

This is not a complete victory for Orbán. But scholars who see the stand-off between European institutions and Hungary as a conflict over objectively discernible questions of rule of law cannot find any legal basis for the compromise.