The First Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, has once again painted a bleak picture of the situation of fundamental rights and freedoms in Hungary and asked the Council of the EU to take the issue seriously at the next meeting of European Affairs Ministers, scheduled for 9 April.
The European official was speaking on 21 March before the Civil Liberties Committee, at the invitation of MEP Judith Sargentini (Greens/EFA, the Netherlands), author of the report on the triggering of Article 7 of the Treaty, against Hungary on 12 September last. The Member also asked the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU to explain the procedure to be followed in the Council of the EU on the Article 7 procedure, as the Member has so far not had the opportunity to present the content of her report directly to the Member States, which Frans Timmermans also deplored. But the Romanian representative simply indicated that the European Parliament would be informed of the forthcoming exchanges of views on the subject, which will be on the agenda on 9 April, and that there was no room to involve Parliament in the Council of the EU's discussions.
The First Vice-President told MEPs that the situation had not improved in Hungary and had even worsened in some respects, with Frans Timmermans citing recent poster campaigns against Jean-Claude Juncker; he pointed out that Budapest had not yet replied to the reasoned opinion sent in January on the ‘stop Soros’ law, which criminalises NGOs active in the defence of migrants, and that, without a reply by 24 March, the matter could be brought before the Court of Justice. The European official also expressed concern about the practices recently condemned by the European Court of Human Rights to refuse to feed migrants in transit areas. In his opinion, this indicates the “seriousness” of the situation.
Viktor Orbán is not going to change anything
The hearing followed the EPP's suspension of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party on 20 March (see EUROPE 12218/8), motivated by the fact that “we cannot compromise on democracy, the rule of law, freedom of the press, academic freedom or minority rights. Anti-EU rhetoric is unacceptable, the differences between the EPP and Fidesz must stop”, the party said. On Wednesday evening, the Hungarian Prime Minister himself, at any rate, immediately after the EPP political assembly, judged that this decision was “good” and had shown that the EPP did not want to separate from him.
The leader first contested and then associated himself with the motion for suspension, which was passed by a vote of 191 to 3, explaining later that it had been taken jointly with the EPP. He also said that he would not change his policy and that he would continue to defend Christian Europe and fight against illegal immigration.
The Hungarian also denied that he had attacked Jean-Claude Juncker in various poster campaigns and considered them to be “information campaigns” on European policies. He also stressed that he would continue to embody this anti-immigration fringe within the EPP, but did not dispute either the idea that Fidesz's membership of the EPP should be discussed within the Hungarian bench after the European elections. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)