Brussels – The EU is waiting for Hungary. This is the message that the Commission is sending to the mitteleuropean country, which is being watched for violations of the rule of law. It is not so much the restrictions on civil rights—against which Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is waging a crusade (see Budapest Pride)—that are of greatest concern to the EU executive, but the parliamentary process of a law that, if adopted, will allow the government to silence foreign-funded organisations and entities. Just as happens in the Russia of Vladimir Putin.
In Brussels, the redde rationem (showdown) with Hungary seems to be getting closer and closer. The Berlaymont is asking the government in Budapest to “withdraw the draft law on transparency in public life“, as reiterated again today (26 May) by Commission spokesmen. “We are closely following developments,” they say, stressing that if the law is adopted, “there would be a serious breach of European principles and laws”. They guarantee that, in case of final approval by the Magyar Parliament, the College “will not hesitate to take the necessary decisions.”
So worrying for the twelve-star executive is the draft law entitled ‘transparency in public life‘, tabled a couple of weeks ago by Fidesz, the party of the Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, at the National Assembly in Budapest. The measure would give the government the authority to freeze funding from abroad for NGOs, media, and other entities that it deems to be threats to national sovereignty, based on ‘blacklists‘ compiled by the controversial Office for the Protection of Sovereignty.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (photo: Aurore Martignoni/European Commission)
The fear in Brussels is that the Budapest Parliament is about to adopt a measure that somewhat too closely resembles a law in force in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, which officially targets so-called ‘foreign agents’ but in fact gags dissent against the tsar’s regime by putting any independent countervailing power out of play.
“The Commission attaches great importance to civil society and is committed to protecting the right of association,” the spokesmen emphasise, recalling that Hungary has already been referred to the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) last year precisely “because the Sovereignty Office and its investigations are in breach of EU law“. The head-on clash seems inevitable, as the Magyar government does not seem willing to back down, and the EU Parliament is lobbying Ursula von der Leyen so that she will ask the Court for interim urgent measures.
The other track on which the temperature of the clash between the EU and Hungary is currently being measured is the one related to the announced cancellation of the Budapest Pride, although here Brussels’ approach is colder. “It is the national authorities that decide on rallies and demonstrations,” they merely comment from the Berlaymont. So, if the government wants to ban them, go ahead. The Pride organisers can apply for authorisation from the municipality no more than a month in advance: since the march is scheduled for 28 June, the next few hours, the story will start to unfold.
A procedure ex Article 7 of the Treaty has been active against Orbán’s Hungary since 2018, at the initiative of the EU Parliament, for alleged violation of EU law, fundamental EU values and the rule of law. And it is precisely on this procedure that the General Affairs Council will hold the eighth hearing of the Magyar government tomorrow (27 May), whose representatives will be questioned by the ministers of the Twenty-Seven and the Commission to obtain updated information on the state of play, although no particular breakthrough is to be expected.
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In recent times, however, the measure against the strongman of Budapest seems to have been bridged across the board. Members of the Strasbourg hemicycle have always been the most vocal critics of the authoritarian Hungarian leader: last month, a monitoring mission visited the Hungarian capital to assess the situation on the ground, while last week, a group of 26 MEPs called on the Commission to freeze all EU funds destined for Hungary immediately. Currently, there are around €18 billion blocked under different credit lines, from cohesion funds to NRP payments.
Now, also the list of the other Member States fed up with Orbán‘s constant obstructionism is growing, especially (but not only) with respect to the Ukraine dossier. But, EU sources say, the necessary level of political consensus to proceed to a vote in the Council has not yet been reached: to activate the so-called ‘preventive arm’ of Article 7 there is a four-fifths threshold, i.e. 22 member states out of 27, but at the moment only 19 would agree.
The latest in chronological order to point the finger at the Kremlin’s Trojan horses—the Hungarian Prime Minister and his Slovak counterpart, Robert Fico—was the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, reversing Berlin’s traditional coldness about the central European country’s violations. The leader of the CDU noted today that “if we continue on this path we will not be able to avoid a conflict“ (legal, of course) with Budapest and Bratislava, going so far as to suggest the possibility of “withdrawing European funds from them”, as demanded by MEPs.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
