Brussels, 05/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - “For Europe, freedom of the media is a sacred principle, a fundamental value.” With this conviction, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso will travel to Budapest on Friday along with members of the College of Commissioners for meetings with the new and already criticised Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers and its Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The visit will be dominated by two potentially explosive issues - the controversy over the new Hungarian law, effective since 1 January, which may very well infringe the Charter of Fundamental Rights, on the media, and the “crisis tax” imposed by Budapest on European companies.
On Wednesday, the European executive received from the Hungarian authorities notification and the translation of the now infamous law transposing the directive on audiovisual services. This will allow the Commission to begin its legal investigation of the transposition, after which it will be in a position to say whether infringement proceedings will be brought against Hungary. This investigation “will take some weeks or even some months”, Barroso's spokesman Olivier Bailly said. It may, then, not be completed under Hungarian Presidency.
All this is unlikely to stop Barroso from seeking “clarification” from Orban on the effect of the law on freedom of the press. In this, he will be following Vice-President Neelie Kroes who, on 22 December, sent the Hungarian authorities a letter seeking similar clarification. For Barroso, Hungary has to “remove any doubts” and “we hope” that it will do so.
The Commission president said that, as things stand, relations between the Commission and Hungary had not been affected. “We want all member states to respect the principles of democracy and the rule of law”, he said, but, until proceedings have been opened, “we take the view that everything is OK”. (Cor./transl.rt)