Hungary’s construction law unconstitutional

The section of the law on state construction investments the president objected to is unconstitutional, therefore, the law cannot enter into force, according to the Constitutional Court’s resolution published on Thursday.

The law would have applied to state construction investments financed at least 50 percent from state or European Union funds. Some of its detailed and comprehensive rules required approval from two-thirds of MPs, while in some details the law permitted deviation from its own rules, even by ministerial decree.

After the law was approved by parliament earlier this month, President Katalin Novak turned to the Constitutional Court, arguing that the possibility of deviation by ministerial decree empties the statutory regulation and leads to a violation of legal security.