Brussels, 11/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - The political groups responsible for drafting the resolution adopted on Thursday 10 March in Strasbourg on the Hungarian media law, welcomed this vote which in their opinion establishes the lack of sufficient change introduced by Hungary, as it does the lack of sufficient work achieved by the European Commission on ensuring full respect for the Charter of Fundamental Rights (EUROPE 10333).
For the S&D Group, the Commission should continue to examine this law and its compliance with the Charter of Fundamental Rights, explained Hannes Swoboda. The group says that it is shocked that the Commission is going to great lengths to “justify the action of Mr Barroso's allies”.
Renate Weber explained that ALDE had pointed out that “the modifications introduced by the Hungarian government are quite simply insufficient… we cannot ignore the concerns of bodies specialised in the area of media freedom, such as the representative from the OSCE for media freedom and the commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe, which illustrate the non-compliance of Hungarian legislation with European values and standards on media freedom, pluralism and the governance of independent media”. Morten Lokkegaard said that “the Hungarian media law restricts the freedom of expression and we cannot tolerate this in Europe. We must therefore continue our struggle to change this law. If we do not succeed, it will be necessary to go to the European Court of Justice.”
Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Rebecca Harms from the Greens/EFA Group said that the EP has shown that with this resolution, “we'll keep up the pressure to guarantee respect for fundamental rights in the EU, in all member states. Freedom of the media is part of these rights” and the text adopted “explains that the new Hungarian law on the media still constitutes a serious impediment to media freedom, despite the changes obtained in agreement with the European Commission”. They consider that “it is really regrettable that Ms Kroes is satisfied with accepting a few superficial amendments, which do not change the content of this law and which still remains problematic”. They affirmed that “this law was devised with the intention of limiting media activity in Hungary and restricting any critical examination of the government. This is in direct conflict with the basic principles of the EU, as announced in the Treaties and in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.”
The EPP, however, obviously did not share this sentiment entirely. This group considers that this resolution is simply “not useful and exclusively serves political objectives”, explained Simon Busuttil. The EPP considers that the four other political groups behind the resolution have failed to take into account the amendments introduced by Hungary and the approval granted by the Commission. By voting against the resolution, the EPP has therefore demonstrated that it is responsible and “credible”. (S.P./transl.fl)