Brussels, 14/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission and the Hungarian authorities are moving towards a solution on the three points of controversy surrounding the latest review of the Hungarian constitution, a Commission spokesman, Olivier Bailley, said on Friday. “On at least two points out of three, we are confident an agreement can be reached”, he said. The third point concerns restrictions placed on political advertising in private media, which have a potential impact on the electoral campaign for the European elections in 2014. On this last aspect, both parties are nonetheless conducting “constructive” discussion at a technical level, Bailly said. Early May, the Commission had sent three administrative letters to Budapest, calling on it to provide clarification on several constitutional amendments voted on by the Hungarian parliament in March, mainly on the proposal to tax citizens in order to pay fines imposed by the Court of Justice, and on the extent of the powers given to the president of the national justice office when it comes to transferring legal cases from one court to the other. Hungary answered the letters in question. The European Commission has in recent days received “detailed” accounts of how Budapest plans to address the problems raised, the spokesman said. The Commission, Bailly added, however, plans to wait for practical implementation of those commitments before declaring the matters closed.
On Friday 14 June, the Venice Commission was also to deliver a long-awaited opinion on these amendments that it was to furnish with the very latest announcements made by the Hungarian authorities. According to certain preparatory versions that have already done the rounds, the opinion did not give an entirely black picture of the situation and even sketched out several positive reform elements although it did conclude that there were still problems when it comes to the independence of the judiciary and to the democratic opposition. The Commission's opinion was, nonetheless, to integrate the last commitments from the government, described that same day at midday by the European Commission as somewhat encouraging, and to be possibly amended. (SP/transl.jl)