BRUSSELS — For the past few years, Hungary and Poland have repeatedly gone up against the long-established rules and values of the European Union, even though they are members.
They have challenged the supremacy of E.U. law and circumvented rulings from the bloc’s highest court. Brussels has responded with reprimands and warnings, but in Budapest and Warsaw, they have been received as empty threats.
Now, though, Brussels is using another tool at its disposal: money. At a time when Europe is trying to recover from the pandemic, the European Union has withheld tens of billions of dollars in grants to Hungary and Poland, and Poland is looking at hefty fines for flouting decisions of the bloc’s highest court, the European Court of Justice.