In the interview, our policy expert says that treating the rule of law mechanism as the nuclear option is the wrong approach.
In a new study for the European Parliament, which is not yet published, Thu Nguyen and her co-authors discuss the potential scope of the application of the rule of law mechanism and how it relates to other instruments aimed at protecting the EU’s financial interests.
One of the problems identified in the report is that the rule of law mechanism, under which EU funds may be suspended in cases of rule of law breaches affecting the EU budget, is often portrayed as a "nuclear option".
"In our study, we try to invalidate this picture, because treating the rule of law mechanism as some sort of "nuclear option or option of last resort in the battle over the rule of law" risks turning the mechanism into such a toxic instrument, with such a high application threshold, that the political costs for using it become too high. This should be avoided," says Thu Nguyen.
Listen to the full interview (in German) here.