The Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union, Laila Medina, considers that the infringement proceedings brought by the Commission against Hungary are admissible and that Hungary has indeed infringed EU law, in her opinion delivered on Thursday 27 February in case C-271/23 between the European Commission and Hungary.
The case concerns Hungary’s vote at a session of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, where it voted against the decision of the Council of the European Union concerning the reclassification of cannabis and related substances.
Taking the view that this vote was contrary to EU law, the Commission initiated infringement proceedings against Budapest.
According to the Advocate General, who examined the action, Hungary’s conduct “jeopardised the coherence and consistency of the Union’s action and (...) acted in breach of the principle of sincere cooperation”. She considers that “failure to comply with [the Council’s decision] may call into question the unity and consistency of the European Union’s external action and undermine (...) the rule of law”.
By deliberately voting against the Council’s decision, Hungary “failed to fulfil its obligations under the Union’s exclusive external competence”.
See the opinion of the Advocate General: https://aeur.eu/f/fox (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)