After a debate on worrying developments in Hungary, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) called in a resolution on Wednesday 25 April for any legislative initiative restricting civil society and the activities for the Central Europe University to be suspended awaiting the opinion of constitutional law experts on the Venice Commission.
Two legislative acts are concerned there – the draft law on transparency of organisations receiving foreign funding and – the law amending the law on higher education in Hungary (see EUROPE 11775).
For the first item of legislation, PACE says it is already concerned about lack of public consultation, the severity of penalties (including the possibility of an NGO being closed down) and the vast scope of application.
The resolution states that while PACE agrees that NGOs must demonstrate transparency in terms of their sources of financing, it cannot accept the allegations that civil society organisations are serving foreign interests rather than the general interest and are a risk to national security and a country’s sovereignty simply because they receive more than a certain amount of foreign funding each year.
PACE regrets that the draft law was drawn up and is being assessed against the backdrop of an insulting and accusatory tone adopted by Hungarian political leaders.
PACE calls on the Hungarian authorities more generally to engage in an open dialogue on both draft laws with both civil society and the Council of Europe and other international organisations.
Danish socialist Mogens Jensen, who piloted the report debated by PACE, said they were now able to effectively and constructively offer their skills today to improve the draft law before it’s too late. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)