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The European Union's (EU) attempts to deal with the ongoing rule of law crisis in numerous member states resulted in the adoption of the so-called “rule of law conditionality” mechanism. Judicial challenges to the new tool before the Court of Justice resulted in two rulings1 issued in February 2022 by the full court and livestreamed for the first time in the Court's history. The judgements might be considered the most important “rule of law rulings” in the Court's case-law, since they put the rule of law at the forefront of the European Union's identity.
Regulation 2020/2092 on a general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget2 was adopted in December 2020. It was the result of an ongoing debate on how to tackle rule of law backsliding in some EU member states. Despite the creation of numerous soft tools, the idea that EU member states should face financial consequences for breaching common EU values was suggested on numerous occasions.3 The Commission's first proposal4 of 2018 was criticized by the Council Legal Service, which argued that it established a procedure parallel to the one available under Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU).5 After intensive negotiations, new sets of amendments were introduced, and Regulation 2020/2092 was adopted under the German presidency in the Council together with the multi-annual EU budget6 and post-COVID recovery fund.7
The Regulation was adopted under Article 322(1)(a) of the Treaty...