Money for nothing? EU institutions’ uneven record of freezing EU funds to enforce EU values

Since 2010, the European Union has been challenged by rogue Member States that reject its fundamental values. The European Commission cajoled, expressed concern and occasionally brought infringement actions. Yet autocratisation continued. Then the EU passed three regulations with the 2021–2027 EU budget cycle and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that explicitly permitted the Union to freeze funds to rogue Member States. At the end of 2022, the EU had acted on all three, freezing all non-agricultural funds to Hungary and Poland. Did this action restore EU values? The results are mixed. One the one hand, given the financial stakes, the funding freezes spurred rogue governments’ responses and moved rogue states’ publics to challenge their leaders more than any other mechanism had. On the other, the EU has since buckled under pressure to unfreeze all funds to Poland and most to Hungary, both before meaningful changes were implemented. Therefore, the jury is still out on the longer-term impact and benefits of budgetary conditionality, and on the question of whether we will see a definitive move away from the default of Money for Nothing.