Brussels, 09/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - Budapest and the Commission are very close to an agreement on implementation of the amendments to the new laws affecting the Hungarian central bank, the data protection authority and the official retirement age of judges. This announcement was made on Wednesday by Jozsef Szajer, the Hungarian MP and member of the political party in power, Fidesz, during a briefing. On 17 January, the Commission opened three infringement procedures against Hungary, to which the latter must provide a response within the next eight days. The Commission gave the country a one-month deadline, as opposed to the two months usually included in procedures. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has indicated that Budapest will be amending certain points in this legislation, sharply criticised by the European Parliament. The Hungarian government will, then, submit the amendments to its parliament over the next few weeks.
On the question of the central bank, the Hungarian government has agreed to review its law enabling a government representative to attend meetings of the central bank committee, explained Szajer. On the issue of data protection, the prime minister will no longer have the right to demand the suspension of the supervisor responsible for this. On the question of judges' retirement age, which has been set at 62 in the new reforms as opposed to the current 70, the law will be made more flexible and include exceptions to this rule when certain judges request that they be allowed to continue their activities beyond this limit. This option will only be possible on a case-by-case basis.
On the other hand, the MP warned that Budapest would not cave in on all the different points, namely the question of the governor of the central bank's salary, which has been capped. The law in Hungary with regard to the administration has set the salary limit at “2 million Forints” (€6,852), explained the MP. The same applies to the oath the Hungarian government would like to impose on all central bank officials. Szajer said: “We do not understand where the problem is”, adding that there was “no reason to make an exception” and everyone should accept this.
In a more general context, the MP deplored the polemic surrounding his country over the last few months and denounced it as “a double standard” in the EU, with countries like Germany and Austria, which have also experienced similar situations to that in Hungary (on the question of the age of retirement for judges and the independence of judicial appointments, he said) but these countries have not come under attack. The MP also regretted the debate on 18 December in Strasbourg and the attacks that compared his country to a dictatorship, “which created a very negative image of Hungary” and which he believed was unfair.
Szajer also criticised the Council of Europe and its regular warnings regarding the Hungarian situation. Although the MP recognised the perfect legitimacy of the Commission to call Hungary to account, the Council of Europe does not have “either the means or the resources” to carry out fair and impartial assessments. He added that there was a lot more “political manoeuvring at the Council of Europe than at the Commission”.
On Thursday afternoon, the civil liberties committee at the EP was expected to organise another hearing on the fundamental rights situation in Hungary. Commissioner Neelie Kroes and Françoise Le Bail de from DG Justice at the European Commission were expected to attend and the question of the use of Article 7 in the Treaty was due to be discussed. This includes a response mechanism (the use of sanctions, even) in the event of serious violations of European principles by a member state. (SP/transl.fl)