Hungary Is Pressed on Democracy BRUSSELS - Reawakening a debate on what the European Union should do when one of its members threatens its democratic principles, the bloc's executive arm opened legal proceedings on Tuesday against Hungary, which critics contend is sliding toward authoritarianism. It has been more than 10 years since the Union faced a similar situation, when an Austrian coalition government included a far-right party. Austria was forced into semi-isolation when the bloc's other countries severed political ties. The government of Hungary, by contrast, is being taken to task on technicalities rather than the wider claims that it is undermining democracy, centralizing power and destroying pluralism. On Tuesday the European Commission, the Union's executive arm, said it was starting proceedings over measures that threaten the independence of Hungary's central bank and of its data-protection authority, and over rules on the retirement age of judges. Ultimately, Hungary can be forced to change rules that breach European law or, if it refuses, can be taken to the European Court of Justice. But the dispute has ignited a broader debate. While the union insists that countries meet democratic standards to join, there are few sanctions once a nation is a member. After talks on Monday, Belgium and the Netherlands suggested that the situation could be discussed by European ministers next week. Belgium's foreign minister, Didier Reynders, said the bloc should monitor countries" adherence to political and economic standards. "Why is it possible for economic criteria but not for political criteria?" he asked on Tuesday in Brussels. It is a question of political will. The issue came into focus after 10 formerly Communist countries joined the bloc in 2004 and 2007, despite worries about whether all had completed their transition to Western-style democracy. In the past decade, Poles and Slovaks have elected populist governments, though neither clashed as openly with the European authorities as Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban. Criticized last year over the introduction of a law to regulate the news media, he hit back at those who likened his style of government to that of the Russian prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin. "From 1998 to 2002, the Western press said I was reminiscent of Hitler and Il Duce," Mr. Orban said at the time. Now they compare me with Putin and the Belarussian president. I will leave up to you to decide if it is progress or not. Mr. Orban, an architect of Hungary's overthrow of Communism, won his first round as prime minister in 1998, riding a wave of nationalism while cultivating his image as a churchgoing father of five. He returned as prime minister in April 2010 after his party, Fidesz, won a landslide victory. He plans to speak on Wednesday in the European Parliament. When he appeared there last year, there were angry protests from deputies. Mr. Orban, in fact, retreated over the media law when faced with specific objections from the European Commission. But similar tensions have arisen over a revamping of Hungary's Communist-era Constitution. Mr. Orban has been able to re-draft it because he has an unusually large parliamentary majority. It exceeds the two-thirds needed for constitutional amendments and allows him to ignore the opposition. Critics say that he has used his powers to install those loyal to Fidesz to public positions carrying long periods of service. Eugeniusz Smolar of the Polish Institute for Foreign Affairs said Mr. Orban's activities pose a greater danger than Poland's flirtation with rightist populism under the twin brothers Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who at one point occupied the posts of president and prime minister. Mr. Smolar said Mr. Orban had embarked on an "institutional attempt to perpetuate power." Lech Kaczynski was killed in an air accident in 2010 while Jaroslaw lost power in 2007. "Our worries about this are genuine," Mr. Smolar said. We can't go to Belarus or Ukraine and press democracy and human rights when we have a similar situation in our own crowd. Zoltan Kovacs, Hungary's minister of state for government communication, said the country was ready to negotiate with the European Commission as a "partner."