Brussels, 30/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - With Commissioner for Fundamental Rights Viviane Reding indicating last week that a new infringement procedure would “probably” be initiated against Hungary due to the recent amendments made to the constitution, the Hungarian parliament adopted a resolution on Monday evening condemning a declaration made by Viviane Reding in March, which criticised the Hungarian legal system, AFP reports.
The resolution adopted by 277 votes to 53, with 7 abstentions stipulates that “it is unacceptable that Viviane Reding describe the Irish procedure violating the European Union's fundamental directives, as understandable”. The resolution calls on Reding to do her utmost for “legal co-operation between EU member countries, particularly with regard to mutual recognition of legal decisions”. In an article that appeared last March in the German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Reding described Ireland's refusal to extradite an Irish citizen to Hungary as “understandable”. The person in question had been implicated, in 2000, in a fatal road accident that occurred in Hungary. Last June, the Irish Supreme Court decided that it would not be sending the Irish national back to Hungary. The man was sentenced in Hungary to three years imprisonment in absentia. The Commissioner informed the newspaper that “personally, I wasn't surprised - this goes back to a period in which many decisions were taken in Hungary which raised questions regarding the independence of the Hungarian legal system”. The Hungarian minister for justice, Tibor Navracsics, had already lodged a complaint at the end of March with the Irish minister, Alan Shatter, with regard to the “outrageous” ideas expressed by Commission Vice-President Reding. The Hungarian minister said that these ideas were “scandalous and completely unacceptable” and that the commissioner should not have given a personal opinion on the decision made by the Irish Supreme Court. A Commission source said that this resolution is seen, above all, as a means of using this affair for political ends, particularly now that “the Commission is - what a coincidence - in the middle of finalising its legal analysis on the Hungarian situation”. (SP/trans.fl)