Brussels. 19/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Conservative prime minister of Hungary, Victor Orban, said on MR1 radio station on Friday that Hungary is prepared to make some concessions about recent changes to its constitution to meet concerns expressed by the European Commission. He said Hungary was prepared to give ground on two of the three issues raised by José Manuel Barroso. Orban said he was open to compromise on rules banning big political parties from electioneering on private television stations and the rules allowing only the head of the country's justice office to change the courts in Hungary where cases are tried. He said that, if the EU didn't want cases involving the EU to be heard in different courts, then there would be no problem complying with that. He said he was prepared to introduce an exception to the publicity measures, stating that the rules will not cover the European elections. The PM would not make any moves vis-a-vis the introduction of a new tax if the government is fined by the EU under the infringement proceedings because he said the government was not prepared to increase the public deficit to pay a fine or international damages.
On 12 April, the president of the European Commission sent Orban a new letter, explaining areas that are problematic in relation to EU rules, a letter to which he received a speedy response. The fourth change to Hungary's institution in 15 months is a matter of concern not only to the European Commission, but also NGOs and the Council of Europe. The amendments voted through by the Hungarian parliament on 11 March are accused of trampling on the powers of the constitutional court, recommending a limited understanding of what constitutes a family and giving the right to forcibly remove homeless people from public places.
On 17 April, the European Parliament held a further debate on the Hungarian situation and drafted a new resolution. On Friday, Orban described himself as a victim under constant attack from the EU, which is putting pressure on Hungary to get it to change its economic direction, pressure that he said was only applied because the government had dared to step on the feet of big multinational companies, referring to a crisis tax on big foreign banks and telecoms companies. (SP/transl.fl)