The Rule of the Courts

The Role of the Courts in the Protection of the Rule of Law and of Fundamental Rights

law criteria. This is based on the assumption that deficiencies in the inde pendence of the courts and the administration do not guarantee the proper implementation of the Union budget and thus can affect the financial interests of the Union. 18 The procedure has been applied several times in the last years. When the regulation was challenged by Poland and Hungary, the European Court of Justice dismissed the actions as unfounded, 19/20 as the legislator had made sure that only those deficiencies in the rule of law are admissible grounds for suspending payments to the Member States in question that could affect the use of EU budgetary resources. 21 The regulation therefore establishes the necessary link to the budgetary competence of article 322 para. 1 TFEU which has been used as the legal basis for the regulation. The judicial resistance against the reforms in Poland relied mainly on the infringement procedure according to article 258 TFEU and the preliminary rulings procedure under article 267 TFEU. It proved, on the one hand, the effectiveness of the procedural instruments of the Treaties, but, on the other hand, highlighted also the importance of a functioning national court system as the dialogue partner of the European Court of Justice. It vindicates the fundamental choice, which article 267 para. 2 TFEU has made, to entitle every single national court and tribunal and not only the supreme courts or constitutional courts to enter in a dialogue with the European Court of Justice. Germelmann , DÖV 2021, 193; Mader , EuZW 2021, 133; cf. also Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the application of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2092 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2020 on a general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget, COM(2024) 17 final. Concerning Hungary, see Baade , NVwZ 2023, 132. 18 Recital 7 et seq. of the Regulation 2020/2092; Reynders , ÖstAnwBl. 2020, 292 (at 294). 19 CJEU (FC), 16 February 2022, Case C-156/21 – Hungary v. Parliament and Council; see also Gaudin , RTDH 2023, 17; Marti , RTDE 2022, 353; Platon , CDE 2022, 197; Simon , Europe 4/2022, 11; Weber , EuR 2022, 783. 20 CJEU (FC), 16 February 2022, Case C-157/21 (Poland v. Parliament and Council). 21 Cf. Louis , CDE 2021, 3 (at 9 et seq.). 2. Judicial resistance

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