In the first part of this series, I argued that Europe is no longer debating its future—it is fighting over it. The choice is clear: a Europe of sovereign nations or a centralized political project run from Brussels. This is not a theory. It is already reshaping how power is exercised.
What is called ‘competence creep’ is not technical drift—it is a systematic transfer of power. Step by step, competences are expanded without Treaty change, hollowing out the very legal framework that created the Union. If powers can be redefined without consent, sovereignty becomes fiction. Integration without sovereignty is not cooperation—it is merely empire-building.
This is why the Hungarian government launched a systematic review of EU competences last autumn. The goal is simple: expose where coordination has turned into control—in economic policy, energy, migration, rule of law, and even in areas that define national identity, such as education, culture, and family policy.
Economic Governance: From Cooperation to Financial Leverage
Economic governance has already crossed that line. What began as coordination under the European Semester has become financial pressure. EU funds are now tied to politically defined reforms, turning recommendations into de facto obligations.
For instance, these recommendations are tied to access to EU funds through the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). When payment of EU funds depends on implementing specific reforms (so-called ‘milestones’), coordination becomes a sanction-like pressure in practice. This is no longer cooperation—it is conditionality by design.
Energy Policy: Shared Competence under Pressure
Energy policy, which is a shared competence, has been openly weaponized. At the same time, the Treaties clearly guarantee that Member States retain the right to determine their own energy mix.
Nonetheless, crisis instruments—such as Article 122 TFEU—are used to push political objectives, bypass unanimity, and override national choices. The RePowerEU regulation is a textbook case: sanctions policy disguised as internal market law to force Member States into unwanted energy decisions. Hungary has challenged this overreach before the Court of Justice of the EU and has proposed its annulment.
Migration: From Crisis Response to Permanent Framework
Migration policy shows the same pattern. Temporary crisis measures have been turned into a permanent system. Under the new Pact, ‘solidarity’ means quotas or payments—compulsion either way. Member States are no longer free to decide whom they admit.
Meanwhile, judicial pressure has escalated to unprecedented levels: Hungary is facing a €1 million per day penalty for defining its borders. This is not a legal debate—it is coercion.
‘Member States are no longer free to decide whom they admit’
Rule of Law: From Value to Conditionality
The rule of law has become the EU’s most powerful political weapon. Under the banner of protecting values, Brussels has constructed a political mechanism that exerts pressure on governments it disagrees with—often applying double standards and stretching legal bases beyond recognition.
Instruments without a Treaty basis are normalized (Rule of Law Dialogue, Annual Rule of Law Report—with recommendations), while existing ones are repurposed for political pressure (conditionality regulation, Article 7 TEU procedure). Cutting Hungarian universities off from Erasmus and Horizon programmes shows how far this logic has gone: the rule of law has become a tool of political coercion, openly used to influence national politics.
Education, Culture, and Family Policy: The Foundations of Sovereignty
Even education, culture and family policy—core elements of national identity—are no longer untouched. Soft law, court rulings, and funding conditions are used to shape domestic choices. These are not technical policy areas—they define identity, culture, and the future of nations.
Expanding EU influence here is not coordination; it is an attempt to reshape societies from the outside.
Respecting the Treaties
The pattern is clear: cooperation is systematically turned into leverage.
Restoring sovereignty does not mean rejecting Europe—it means restoring the Treaties and respecting Member States. The real threat to the Union is not the Europe of Nations, but a system that expands its powers without democratic consent. A Europe that ignores its own rules cannot expect its citizens to trust it.
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