Legal experts of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe called for the repeal of the immigration tax that came into force in August, in a joint opinion with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on Friday 14 December.
Hungarian law requires NGOs active in the field of immigration to pay 25% of their funding - from foreign or domestic sources - received for any immigration support activity. The Orbán government wants to allocate the money collected to the protection of the Hungarian borders and to the costs of receiving refugees.
The Venice Commission and the ODIHR "recognise that states can raise revenue through taxation, and that all countries can use taxation to dissuade and penalise activities that, while lawful, are not considered in the public interest."
However, they stress that "taxation is neither designed nor should be used to discourage the exercise of the freedoms of expression and association, as guaranteed by the European Convention of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other norms in international law".
According to experts, the Hungarian tax not only finances government activity, but also discourages legitimate associative activities that support migration. Under an apparently neutral façade, they point out, it punishes individuals and entities for the opinions they defend and thus infringes on the freedoms of expression and association.
In addition, they add, the new obligations involve the disclosure of the donor's identity, an approach that could create a climate of "excessive state surveillance".
Combined with the effects of the Stop Soros legislation which criminalises aid to illegal migrants and was denounced in June by the Venice Commission (see EUROPE 12048) before motivating the initiation of infringement proceedings by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12066) in July, the imposition of the Hungarian tax will de facto have a "dissuasive effect on the exercise of fundamental rights in Hungary", conclude the Venice Commission and the ODIHR, which call for its abolition.
Administrative courts. This joint opinion comes at the same time as a statement by Dunja Mijatović, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, who expressed concern about other legislation adopted by the Hungarian Parliament on 12 December.
Dedicated to administrative tribunals, it confers too much power on the Department of Justice in administrative matters, the Commissioner said. She called on the Hungarian President to refer this legislative package back to Parliament, which should start to be implemented in January 2020.
Such a referral would make it possible to take into account the opinion of the Venice Commission, requested by the Hungarian Minister of Justice, but not yet delivered. (original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)