Guy Verhofstadt is right about the EU confronting Poland and Hungary and teaching them a lesson. The two net recipients of EU funding have clashed with Brussels on legal issues. Under the 2014-2020 cohesion budget, which totaled over €350 billion ($424 billion), Poland and Hungary received €77 billion ($93 billion) and €22 billion ($26 billion), respectively, making them the largest and fourth-largest net beneficiaries of EU funds.

The EU has been a laughing stock in recent years, because it allows illiberal, right-wing populist regimes to benefit from its Cohesion Fund, while their leaders – Poland’s de facto leader, Jarosław Kaczynski, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban – have becom autocratic, criticising the bloc, flouting EU laws, trampling on human rights and cracking down on journalists.

Despite hostility, Viktor Orban says he has no intention to take Hungary out of EU, citing his ambition for change from within. Poland warns against any proposals to withhold structural funds for selected member states as they simply contradict EU treaties. The sad reality is that they are more than happy to take EU money while rejecting EU values. Voices calling for Article 7 of the Treaty of Lisbon be triggered are loud, which see their voting rights within the EU removed.

The author says it is “unacceptable that EU taxpayer money is being used to prop up the vanity projects of illiberal elites who show no compunction about undermining the democratic institutions that make the EU what it is.”

As the EU is in the midst of tortuous negotiations to agree on the next seven-year budget from 2020 to 2027, and the European Commission “will offer proposals for how it should be allocated.” It should make clear that the Cohesion Funds “be disbursed on the condition that recipient member states uphold and enforce the rule of law.” Germany has set out proposals to freeze access to EU funds for countries that fail to meet the expectations.

Orban has attacked the EU relentlessly since he took office in 2010, comparing it to the Soviet Union and launching a “Stop Brussels” campaign. At the same time, some of his family and cronies have become very rich, due to winning EU-funded contracts or pillaging EU funds to build Hungary’s roads, railways, waterworks and other public infrastructure. In fact, Orbán’s regime has been the subject of a number of investigations by the European Anti-Fraud Office.

More than 80% of public investment in Hungary comes from the EU’s Cohesion Funds, which are intended to “promote regional development, support innovation, improve education, and expand digitalization and transport networks, and sustain programs that improve the single market by boosting growth” etc. Critics worry that EU leaders are reluctant to challenge Orban, who sits in the same centre-right political group – the European People’s party – as Angela Merkel, and the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker.

A report commissioned by the Polish government calculated that every euro spent in Cohesion Funds to help Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, returned more than 60 cents to richer countries in benefits such as sales and contracts. Poland is said to have received 86 billion euros ($96.53 billion) in the 2014-20 budgetary period. Its ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party is currently under investigation by the European Commission for serial breaches of EU rule-of-law standards and infringements on judicial independence.

The author says, in order to force these regimes to comply, the EU must punish these countries for their leaders’ behaviour, but not their citizens. He proposes “an objective procedure to monitor compliance and freeze funds when necessary.” In the event Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union “is triggered against a member state for violations of the rule of law, all funds allocated to that country should be placed into a reserve fund. And until the Article 7 procedure is suspended or reversed, those funds should be redirected to support universities, research institutions, and other civil-society groups in that country.”

Indeed, leaders come and go, but their citizens are here to stay. One must place hope on them to have their country’s best interests at heart and unseat irresponsible leaders. It explains why populists and autocrats need popular support to legitimise their grip on power.