The Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU will continue its exchange of letters with the Hungarian Government on the alleged violation of procedural rules by Budapest on 10 December at the hearing on the Rule of law (see EUROPE 12390/8).
When the matter was referred to them on Monday 16 December, the Member States supported this approach and expressed once again, for some of them, their strong dissatisfaction after this turbulent hearing, which the Minister for European Affairs, Tytti Tuppurainen, had even considered “shocking”.
The Finnish Minister will therefore respond to the recent letter from the Hungarian Government, which in turn accused the Finnish Presidency of violating procedural rules. Helsinki also concluded this discussion of the ambassadors by indicating that Member States should ideally be asked whether or not it would be necessary in the future to make these Article 7 hearings public, as Budapest suggested in its letter of 13 December. Helsinki therefore believes that this question could be asked of them when preparing possible new hearings.
However, it will now be up to the Croatian Presidency to manage this matter as of 1st January. On Monday, a dozen Member States took the floor, including Poland and Hungary, the latter having reiterated its position. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)