On Friday 7 September, a spokesperson for the European Commission, Mina Andreeva, said that Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker considered that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Fidesz Party belonging to the European People's Party (EPP) was a "problem". Andreeva thus confirmed reports in the Italian press the previous day.
She said that Juncker has already said that being a member of the EPP involves respecting its "values" and "programme".
The European Parliament is to give its opinion on the opening of the Treaty Article 7 procedure on the respect of rule of law in Hungary (see EUROPE 12090, 12088).
The European Parliament's EPP Group is divided, with some of its members expecting Orbán to make adjustments, especially to the legislation governing the activities of foreign universities or NGOs in Hungary. The Group will decide its position after the plenary debate the day before the vote.
Part of the EPP Group has already given its support to Judith Sargentini's (Greens/EFA, Netherlands) report in the European Parliament's civil liberties committee (see EUROPE 12048).
Back in April 2017, the EPP Party took Orbán to task on his illiberal initiatives going against the European spirit (see EUROPE 11778).
On Thursday, France's President Emmanuel Macron said in Luxembourg that he hoped for clarification on the position of the Christian Democrat family as regards the Orbán government. "It is indeed for the EPP to clarify its positions. But it is not possible to be both on the side of Chancellor Merkel on a lot of subjects and on the side of Prime Minister Orbán. That's a certainty", Macron said, looking forward to an "interesting" debate at the European Parliament. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Mathieu Bion)