Brussels, 16/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - The EU should “start immediately to monitor threats to democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights in Hungary”, said the European Parliament in a resolution adopted in Strasbourg on Wednesday.
In the resolution, which was carried by 327 votes to 293, with 61 abstentions, MEPs call on the Commission to “assess whether the combined effect of government measures there has led to a 'systemic deterioration', which, if the Commission fails to address it, could trigger similar developments in other member states too”, a press release states. During a debate on this same subject on 2 December, Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova told MEPs that, for the moment, the Commission did not see any systemic risk in Hungary.
The resolution criticises the Commission's assessment of developments in Hungary and regrets that it focuses “mainly on marginal, technical aspects of the legislation, while ignoring the trends, patterns and combined effect of measures (..)”. Recent Hungarian government measures on asylum “come on top of earlier steps that contribute to a systemic deterioration in the rule of law and fundamental rights”, MEPs state. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)