Abstract
Serious violations of the rule of law occurring in Hungary from 2010 to the present, as well as in Poland from 2015 to December 2023, have become a threat to the financial interests of the European Union (EU). The ongoing process of limiting the independence of the justice system in these countries has reduced the possibilities of national supervision over the correctness of spending of EU funds. The article aims to analyze and assess the effectiveness of regulations and the actions of the EU institutions undertaken since 2016 to defend the rule of law in the Member States, in particular in regarding Poland and Hungary. Main attention is paid to the financial tools used to protect the rule of law, including the mechanism resulting from the Regulation 2020/2092 of December 2020 on a general regime of conditionality for the protection of the EU budget.