Video shows suspect setting Toronto-area barbershop on fire
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
The top adviser to the European Union's highest court on Thursday said that the principle of linking the bloc's budget disbursements to respect for rule of law is compatible with the bloc's laws and that a challenge by Hungary and Poland should be dismissed.
The right-wing governments of both nations had argued that such action lacked a proper legal basis. Both nations, large recipients of EU funds, have come under increasing criticism over the past few years for veering away from the Western principles of the respect for rule of law in their nations.
The advice to the court precedes a full court decision, which is expected within the coming months.
The EU Commission said it took note of the advice but did not go into details.
Linking the distribution of funds to democratic principles was a key part of the EU's decision last year to push through a massive subsidy program for the 27 member nations to overcome the unprecedented impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Advocate General Manuel Campos Sanchez-Bordona advised that the link was "adopted on an appropriate legal basis ... and respects the principle of legal certainty."
The court said in a statement that "compliance with the principles of the rule of law may be vitally important for the sound operation of public finances and the proper implementation of the Union budget."
Government officials in both Hungary and Poland rejected the opinion, arguing that the court was overstepping its authority in approving a new mechanism that is not described in the EU's own treaties.
Hungary's Justice Minister, Judit Varga, said in a Facebook post that the rule of law regulation "suffers from a number of obvious legal flaws which individually justify its annulment." She also noted that the court's advice was "not a ruling, only an opinion."
"Before tears of joy well up in the eyes of the Brussels elite and the left-liberal press, I would like to make a quiet comment: this is only a recommendation, a judgement is not expected until the end of the year or early next year," Varga wrote.
"No to blackmail on the rule of law!" she added.
A deputy justice minister in Poland, Sebastian Kaleta, accused the EU authorities of violating the rule of law even as they say they are defending it.
"It was naive to trust that EU institutions would be capable of self-limiting," Kaleta wrote on Twitter.
Poland and Hungary have faced criticism in the EU for years over allegations that they have been eroding judicial and media independence, among other democratic principles. The EU had found itself unable to do much to alter the course of either nation, and therefore turned to linking money to their adherence to democratic behaviour.
In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been pushing what he calls "illiberal democracy," which his critics say amounts to stifling democracy. In Poland, the Law and Justice party overwhelmingly dominates government and has also increasingly faced criticism from other EU member nations.
Hungary and Poland initially sought to block the budget because of the introduction of the new mechanism, but eventually agreed to the plan on condition that the European Court of Justice would review it.
------
Justin Spike in Budapest and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw contributed
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
It’s the first flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of NASA pilots who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.