The European Parliament will vote to strip Hungarians of their voting rights in the Council of the European Union

This is believed to have been a concession to Budapest by Brussels ahead of the EU summit, where a historic decision was made to start accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova.

Last week, Petri Sarvaamaa, a Finnish member of the European Parliament, proposed using the procedure under Art. 7 Section 2 of the Treaty on European Union v. Hungary.

Article 7(1) Article 2 states that Parliament can, with the approval of a two-thirds majority, summon Hungary to respond to the European Council regarding violations of the rule of law, after which EU leaders at the national level can decide to strip the country of its voting rights. .

– We are also sending a strong signal to the Commission: if they simply distribute billions of euros to avoid Hungary's veto, they will not get away with it. (…). Due to the lack of rule of law in Hungary, the European Parliament is now filing a lawsuit against the Commission, Daniel Freund, one of the main negotiators of the resolution, told Euractiv.

A vote of no confidence in Ursula von der Leyen?

Parliament hopes to send a warning to the Commission before the EU summit on February 2 and prevent it from freezing further funds allocated to Hungary in exchange for Orban's support for more financial aid for defense efforts in Ukraine.