Rule-of-law mechanism was activated against Hungary but not Poland

Johannes Hahn, the Commissioner for Budget and Administration, is sending a notification letter to Hungary on Wednesday, activating the mechanism linking European Union funding to the rule of law, EC Vice-President Margaritis Schinas said.

Vera Jourova, the Vice-President for Values and Transparency, said on Twitter that the conditionality mechanism will be activated by the letter. “We identified issues that might be breaching [the rule of law] in HU and affect the EU budget,” she said.

Blikk.hu wrote that the EC did not find ground to start the rule-of-law mechanism against Poland.

Jourova said the EC decision was in line with an earlier ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU, under which the commission needs to prove a link between the rule of law and the impact of deficiencies on the European budget. Suspension of payments to Hungary could arise from deficiencies in the national anti-corruption strategy and could impact a large part of EU funding, including cohesion and agricultural funds. Hahn said on Twitter that under its obligation to protect the European budget, the commission would scrutinise each member state within the auspices of the mechanism.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary parties have failed to agree on staffing the leading positions in parliament, and so that task falls to the House Speaker, Fidesz group leader Máté Kocsis said on Wednesday.

The ruling Fidesz and Christian Democrat (KDNP) parties maintain their proposal that the opposition should appoint one-third of parliamentary positions, “despite the fact that the number of opposition lawmakers has declined since four years ago,” Kocsis told a press conference. He said the proposal was “fair and proportionate to parliamentary mandates”.

“The leftist parties never wanted an agreement,”

he said.

The opposition also requested an amendment to the proposal, “even though they accepted a very similar one four years ago,” he said. He accused the opposition of planning to “blame House Speaker László Kövér for their not getting enough positions, even though they will receive them”.

“Fidesz calls on the opposition to fill in all the positions they are entitled to and to fulfil their voters’

will and represent them rather than staying away from work in parliament,” he said.

After the meeting, Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) leader László Toroczkai said the opposition leaders’ absence was a “circus put on especially for the media”, as the opposition leaders have said they would send their proposals to the government.

Mi Hazánk is nominating party deputy leader Dóra Dúró for parliamentary vice-chairperson, and is vying to lead the committee on national security and investment development, Toroczkai said.

Following the talks, opposition DK, Jobbik, LMP, Momentum, Parbeszed and the Socialists said in a joint statement that Fidesz had made it clear that it continues to refuse the method of distributing committee leadership and membership places on the basis of the 30-year tradition and reflecting the size of the parliamentary groups.

The opposition parties consider it unacceptable that Fidesz “wants to rewrite voters’ wish by brute force and award the extremist Mi Hazank with parliamentary positions far exceeding its parliamentary presence, to the detriment of democratic oppostion parties”, the statement said. “This is the intolerable neglect of 1.9 million voters who supported the united opposition,” it added.

Tamás Deustch Fidesz MEP
Read alsoFidesz EP group leader: Hungarian left wing ‘still on side of war’

Source: MTI

6 Comments

  1. As I have commented before, the V4 is now the V3. Poland has agreed (but not yet acted upon) to get rid of the Judicial Star Chamber, which is the main bone of contention with the EU. The Orbán mafia have not agreed to any reforms to bring the Hungarian system back into line with the EU core principles – the ones Hungary signed up to. Orbán now has no friends (except Putin), not even Poland.

  2. Sounds like us in Hungary are being singled out for punishment because we want no part of the European Union and NATO attempt to get WW3 started with Russia over the Ukrainian war caused by the medling of the usual gang of war criminals from the warmongering American government.

  3. Media freedom is one area where the EU are concerned about the rule of law in Hungary. “Orban’s government has come under scrutiny over opaque ownership acquisitions that have seen about 500 separate media outlets placed under an umbrella foundation, Kesma, and interference in public broadcasting that critics say has reduced television and radio stations to propaganda channels, often voicing pro-Russian war narratives.” https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/apr/26/media-freedom-is-in-danger-survey-in-four-eastern-european-countries-finds

  4. @Juhasz Peter, this process was begun long before the war in Ukraine. Hungary was warned back in 2020.

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