In their recent article published in Public Integrity, Áron Hajnal and József Péter Martin, PhD, examine the effectiveness of the EU-enforced rule-of-law reform package in curbing systemic corruption in Hungary.

Systemic corruption yields severe adverse political and socioeconomic consequences. Although anti-corruption has been a top priority on the agenda of international organizations and donors, evidence is inconclusive regarding the effectiveness of anti-corruption approaches. In particular, it is unclear whether a series of incremental reforms can be effective, or only large-scale, sudden, and in-depth (i.e., “big bang”) reforms can tackle systemic corruption.
Contributing to this debate, this research assessed 27 anti-corruption and rule-of-law measures prescribed by the European Union (EU) for Hungary in the frame of “conditionality regimes”, aimed at curbing systemic corruption and rule-of-law abuses. The reform package—introduced in 2022 after a decade of inaction of the EU vis-à-vis democratic backsliding and systemic corruption—was enforced by withholding substantial EU funds from Hungary and constitutes a case of incremental anti-corruption reforms.
The analysis found that while the prescribed measures—implemented by the Hungarian government between 2022 and 2025—had some positive impact, they failed to impede systemic corruption. In a broader sense, the findings suggest that incremental anti-corruption reforms, although not futile, are insufficient to address the roots of systemic corruption effectively.

The full research paper is available here.