> But who oversees the rule of law within the eu commission

EU courts are the judical oversight, and the EU parliament can remove the commission at any time (legislative oversight).

I know the theory but my question was more philosophical.

Corruption isnt just taking bribes. Urusula’s comments are akin to coercing voters into voting against their preference and are a clear violation of treaties whereby the eu has no right to intervene in the sovereign voting process of member states. Its not like italians were bribed or forced into voting a certain way. That means ursula is abusing a position of power in favour of certain political parties with the threat of cutting funding if their new leader isnt docile enough. That is corruption and the perfectly fine eu courts will never sanction her for it.

I think that's interpreting too much into the comment, especially with the reference to Poland and Hungary: It's saying that if the governments cause problems with EU law, the commission has tools to handle that. The commission does not have the power to just cut funding without a reason, and if it ever attempts to do so the EU courts will put a stop to it. The treaty violation processes are slow, intentionally. (And the majority of member states is quite happy with that, since most of them run into that occasionally, and also has all the reasons to not stand for that)

"We'll pay close attention if you stick to the laws" is pretty much the worst the commission can really threaten a government, which isn't really all that much if there is nothing serious to punish.

You could be right, lets see how things develop. But cornering the leader of a country from the get go can have the effect of rallying people around said leader and galvanising their position. You know, national pride and all. Instead ursula should have shown a bit more diplomacy and tact. The british have been rallied around brexiteers precisely because of a lack of diplomacy and tact on eu’s part. They basically said nein to any attempt of negotiation, voters put up their two fingers because of sovereign pride and all and here we are.