The real meaning of a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU, Euratom) 2020/2092 of 16 December 2020 on a general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget

Contrary to the title of the regulation, its consequences are not limited only to protect the EU budget. Article 3 of the Regulation assumes that a breach of the rule of law may be indicated by:

1. threat to the independence of the judiciary;
2. failure to prevent arbitrary or unlawful decisions of public authorities, including law enforcement authorities, failure to correct or impose penalties for such decisions, withholding financial and human resources affecting the proper functioning of these authorities or failure to ensure a situation of no conflict of interest;

1.limiting the availability and effectiveness of remedies, including through restrictive procedural rules and the non-execution of judgments or limiting the effective conduct of investigations in the event of violations of the law, bringing and supporting accusations in relation to such violations or the imposition of

penalties in connection with them.

As a result, the adopted regulations de facto give the European Commission control over not only issues related to the independence of the judiciary, which are a condition for the functioning of EU law, but also issues related to:

• organization of investigation services, such as the Police or the prosecutor’s office;
• manner of carrying out investigative activities;
• meeting the financial and personnel needs of the said bodies;
• the shape of procedural legislation, including in particular solutions adopted in the framework of civil, criminal and administrative procedures;
• the possibility of joining positions in public authorities;

These conclusions are not changed by the fact that the control would refer to the above-mentioned issues only in terms of their impact on the protection of the EU budget. Although it is theoretically possible to divide the functions performed by competent authorities into those related to the protection of the Union’s financial interests and others, the issues that may be controlled under the Regulation concern such fundamental issues of the functioning of these authorities that their influence will have to go far beyond the achievement of the goals declared in the project itself.