Court of Justice of the EU rules Hungary infringed EU law in cannabis case

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Tuesday that Hungary had infringed EU law by voting against the EU's position on the rescheduling of cannabis at the UN.

In December 2020, the UN had to decide whether to remove cannabis and cannabis-related substances from the list of the most dangerous drugs and whether to keep them on the list of drugs with medicinal uses. The EU is not a full member of the UN, only its member states are, but they must abide by joint decisions because the EU is represented through them.

The member states had already agreed on their common position for the UN vote in the EU Council of Ministers, where unanimity was not required (the Hungarian government had also voted against the motion in the EU body).

The UN vote led to infringement proceedings against the Hungarian government, and the European Commission launched legal action on the matter in 2023.

Representatives of the Hungarian government defended themselves by arguing that the Council's decision was unlawful, but the EU Court of Justice rejected this argument. "In its judgment, the Court agrees with the Commission and finds that Hungary has failed to fulfil its obligations under EU law," they wrote in their statement.

They added that, “in the context of an action for failure to fulfil obligations, a Member State cannot properly plead that an act, whatever it may be, of an institution, body, office or agency of the European Union is unlawful" except when “an act that contains such particularly serious and manifest defects”. This is because, if the opposite were true, it would allow any country to violate EU law and wait for infringement proceedings to be brought against it.

According to the ruling, "Hungary infringed the European Union’s exclusive external competence and the Council decision on the common position, and acted in breach of principle of sincere cooperation, which is enshrined in the EU's founding treaties.

Based on the decision, Hungarian decision-makers would be obliged to comply with the judgment as soon as possible; failure to do so could result in a fine.