The EU is withholding aid to press Hungary to reform

has struggled for years to cope with , where the ruling party has packed the courts, and state contracts tend to go to friends of Viktor Orban, the prime minister. It now looks to be getting serious. Since last year the bloc has two powerful new tools. The first is its €750bn ($750bn) covid-recovery fund, which requires each country’s spending plan to be certified by the European Commission. The second is a “conditionality mechanism” which lets it block aid and demand reforms.Mr Orban usually denounces complaints as meddling by Brussels bureaucrats. But with billions of euros in the balance, Hungary suddenly became interested in co-operating. In August it proposed 17 reforms to comply with the conditionality mechanism. Nevertheless, in September the ’s budget commissioner recommended that €7.5bn in aid be withheld until Hungary shows progress. Its €7.2bn request for covid-recovery grants has yet to be signed off. If it is not approved by the end of 2022, Hungary will lose 70% of that money. Both the plan and the conditionality-mechanism reforms will come up for a vote at a meeting of finance ministers (Ecofin) in December.