Orbán to take part in EP debate of LIBE report on Hungary

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will attend the European Parliament’s plenary session on September 11, when the EP is scheduled to discuss the civil liberties committee’s report on the rule of law in Hungary, daily Magyar Idők said on Friday.

The EP is scheduled to vote on the report on the next day, the paper said.

In spring 2017, the EP’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) was asked to prepare a report on Hungary with a view to holding an EP vote on launching the first steps of Article 7, which suspends voting rights. In the report, rapporteur and Green MEP Judith Sargentini said there was a “clear risk of a serious breach by Hungary of the values of the European Union”, which she said warranted launching the Article 7 procedure.

The report warned of a curbing of freedom rights in Hungary.

The committee adopted the report this June, with 37 votes in favour and 19 against. A letter sent to MEPs explaining the Hungarian government’s stance on the report has had no effect, the paper said.

Orbán has said that

the report could be considered a “Soros report”, aimed at pressuring Hungary to change its standpoint on the issue of migration, “but that will not happen”.

Since its drafting, the mandatory quota system “has been taken off the agenda”, with a growing number of countries backing Hungary’s view, he said.

As we wrote yesterday, David B. Cornstein, the United States’ ambassador to Hungary, said he has not experienced any infringement on freedom rights in Hungary and should the case be the opposite, he would certainly speak out against that, in an interview published by Jewish political and cultural magazine Shabbat, read more HERE.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI