EPP leader to present assessment of Fidesz in early February

European People’s Party (EPP) leader Donald Tusk on Monday said he will present his assessment of a report by a three-member council appointed to monitor Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party and the situation in the country at next month’s EPP Political Assembly.

Last March, the EPP’s Political Assembly suspended Fidesz’s membership in the centre-right grouping in line with an agreement between Fidesz and the EPP’s leadership.

The EPP also moved to set up a body of “wise men” to monitor the situation in Hungary.

Tusk said on Twitter after meeting with the Evaluation Committee comprising former European Council president Herman Van Rompuy, former European Parliament president Hans-Gert Poettering and former Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel that he will present his assessment of the report after consultations with party leaders at the meeting in Brussels on Feb. 3-4.

Hungarian Prime Minister and Fidesz leader Viktor Orbán told an international press conference after the March 20 assembly meeting that his party had made a unilateral decision to suspend the exercise of its rights within the EPP until the three-member council finished compiling its report. He said

Fidesz would set up its own “committee of three wise men” to hold talks with the EPP’s delegates and prepare a report on how Fidesz should move forward in its relationship with the EPP.

• Tajani: Fidesz EPP membership issue ‘could be settled’

Source: mti