MEP says civil initiative against Hungary failure

Budapest (MTI) – The announcement by organisers to end a petition launched by the left-wing European Humanist Federation (EHF), seeking to initiate a European Union procedure against Hungary for the violation of democratic values, shows the campaign was a failure, György Schopflin, an MEP for the ruling Fidesz party, said.

The EHV civil initiative was registered by the European Commission last November, and it had one year to collect one million signatures in order to have the EU procedure launched against Hungary. But after collecting only about 10,000 signatures by May this year, according to a report by daily Magyar Idok, the petitioners announced they are withdrawing their move against the Hungarian government.

Schopflin said the motion made a mockery of the institution of civil initiatives, as it was not transparent and failed to comply with several formal requirements. Nevertheless, the European Commission accepted it. He added that although its proponents claimed they did not want to “put Hungary on the spot”, they were seeking to do “just that”, to start Article 7 procedures, which can lead to a country being ejected from the EU.

Source: mtva.hu