Brussels, 12/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - Reactions were not long in coming after Monday evening's announcement of the new amendment to the Hungarian constitution, adopted by the Hungarian parliament. In a joint press release, the president of the European, José Manuel Barroso, and the secretary-general of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, soberly indicated that they had “taken note” of the Hungarian parliament's vote were critical that experts from the Council of Europe and the Commission had not been able to discuss or clarify the detail of these amendments before they were adopted. They also pointed out that these amendments raised a number of concerns as to their compliance with the principles of the rule of law and EU and Council of Europe's standards. In the press release, the two announced that the amendments adopted would be meticulously assessed and said that they hoped that the new promises made on Friday 8 March by Viktor Orban in a letter to Barroso would be followed by action and that the country would make a firm commitment to remove the concerns expressed by the EU.
The tone adopted by the European Parliament on Tuesday morning was a little less courteous. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the joint leader of the Greens/EFA, speaking in Strasbourg, described these amendments as “outrageous” and promised that “we will take an initiative with other EP groups and discuss the matter with the Commission”. He said that Monday evening's vote was “the final straw” and added that “we cannot constantly write letters and receive nonsensical answers. If this is what the EU is about, it's not going to hold out long in the storm”. He also said that the EPP (of which Orban's party forms part) would have to respond though, so far, it had said very little about the matter.
The leader of the ALDE Group, Guy Verhofstadt, expressed the same annoyance and said that Orban “doesn't want to respect European values” and “is ridiculing the EU”. Verhofstadt said that the Commission and the Council should take immediate action, beginning with analysing all the changes made to the constitution. Olivier Bailly, the spokesman for the Commission, confirmed at midday on Tuesday that this was what was happening but did not set out any timetable. He stated that “in the past, we have responded very swiftly in these kinds of situations”.
Verhofstadt considers that the situation again requires the EU to look again at using Article 7, a procedure that can be used against the member state that clearly violates the principles of the EU and which would ultimately deprive it of its voting rights at the Council. Article 7 had already been discussed in 2011 and 2012, with regard to Hungary and Orban. It can be activated whenever European values have been systematically breached. Use of Article 7 is subject to certain conditions such as the risk of a serious violation of the EU's values before activation of the prevention mechanism and a warning to the member state concerned, or serious and persistent violation which brings sanctions. These violations have to be very serious and involve, for example, respect for human dignity, the rule of law, human rights and the rights of individuals belonging to minority groups. The procedure, however, is not that easy to activate or put into practice. Even in its initial phase, it requires a clear majority vote at the three institutions, Council (1/3 of member states), Commission and the EP. (SP/MD/transl.fl)