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| - Poland and Hungary on Thursday filed complaints with the EU's top court over a plan to link EU budget payments to rule of law conditions, warning that the new system could be "politicised". Both countries have been accused by Brussels of rolling back democratic freedoms and supporters of the new mechanism say it could slow what they see as a slide into authoritarianism. But the Polish government said that such mechanisms "do not have a legal basis in the Treaties, interfere with the competences of the Member States and infringe the law of the European Union". Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga said on Facebook that the proposed conditionality "seriously infringes legal certainty." At the end of last year, Poland and Hungary blocked adoption of Europe's 1.8 trillion euro ($2.2 trillion) budget and coronavirus recovery package over the dispute. At an EU summit in December, EU leaders struck a compromise that meant the mechanism would not be implemented until the European Court of Justice has ruled on any possible complaints. The Polish statement said the EU "has no competence to define the concept of 'the rule of law' or to lay down the conditions for assessing compliance with the underlying principles. "Although the 'rule of law' is a common value of the Member States, its content cannot be shaped by arbitrary decisions without respect for national identities and the diversity of their legal systems and traditions," it said. The statement said a "potentially arbitrary" and "politicised interpretation" of EU rules was "a very serious danger not only for Poland but for the entire European Union". Budapest and Warsaw are major recipients of EU budget cash and both have been heavily criticised by Brussels on rule of law. Poland is subject to an EU investigative procedure over its efforts to trim the independence of the judiciary, as is Hungary for an erosion of democratic norms, such as press freedom, under Prime Minister Viktor Orban's rule. When Poland first objected to the EU's plans in November, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused a "European oligarchy" of stronger EU member states of punishing weaker ones. "We say 'yes' to the European Union, but 'no' to being punished like children, 'no' to mechanisms that mean Poland and other countries are treated unequally," he said. "This is a matter of sovereignty," he said, adding that tying funding to political conditions decided in Brussels could lead eventually "to a break-up of the EU". burs-dt/pvh
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