The European Commission on possible new conditionality attached to EU transfers

HUNGARY - In Brief 02 Jul 2017 by Istvan Racz

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Politicians in the EU and especially in donor countries have been repeatedly talking about the need to attach tighter political conditionality to the distribution of financial grants by the European Union ("EU transfers') to member countries. This idea has come up in the context of performance on the part of recipient countries regarding democracy and the rule of law, and also on European solidarity regarding refugee policies. Earlier this week, the EU Commission came forward with a discussion paper dealing with the allocation of EU transfers under the upcoming new seven-year EU budget of 2021-2027, and also held a press conference on the subject. The main take-aways from the document and the press conference appear to be the following:- The EU Commission is not thinking about restricting access to EU transfers for those member states which do not perform well on democracy and the rule of law or do not cooperate with donor countries on refugee policies, as regards the distribution of funds under the current EU budget (for 2014-2020). More broadly, no such initiatives from other sources were mentioned.- Regarding the 2021-2027 budget, the lack of cooperation with donor countries regarding refugee policies, as a possible reason to restrict access to EU funds, were not mentioned in the document either. The only reference to this subject was made by EU commissioner (responsible for regional policies) Corina Cretu, who did not exclude the possibility of linking access to EU funds to recipient country performance on refugee policies if the necessary political will is there. However, this did not sound at all as a proposal by the EU Commission. - However, recipient country pe...