According to the European Commission, Hungary significantly lags behind EU democratic standards, particularly in combating corruption, bribery, and conflicts of interest, as well as in the financing of political parties and the independence of media, as stated in the European Commission's annual rule of law report on EU member countries and several EU membership candidate countries.
Hungary, which holds the presidency of the EU Council until the end of the year, consistently faces criticism in the European Commission's rule of law reports. The European Commission is pursuing several legal cases against Hungary over numerous violations of the rule of law. In June, the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg ordered Hungary to pay a significant fine for violating European laws on migration and asylum.
The EU has frozen €30 billion in financial aid to Hungary due to real risks of corruption and the lack of independence of Hungarian courts. Later, the EU agreed to unfreeze part of this amount to secure the necessary agreement from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for providing further military and financial aid to Ukraine.
