The granting of full powers to Viktor Orbán by the Hungarian Parliament on 30 March to fight COVID-19 (see EUROPE 12457/31) triggered a new crisis for the Rule of law in the EU.
While Hungarian legislators accepted an emergency law that allows, among other things, governing by decree, the suspension of all elections, and imprisonment for people who spread false information about the coronavirus–a crime that directly targets journalists, according to NGOs–many voices, including MEPs and European politicians including German European Affairs Minister Michael Roth, have called on the European Commission to react or have made a point of reminding Mr Orbán of the basic principles of the Rule of law.
On 31 March, it was the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who issued a statement criticising the Hungarian law, but she chose to target all Member States and their emergency measures without ever mentioning Hungary, even though this country, together with Poland, now seems to have the most problematic security response to the coronavirus.
In this declaration, Mrs von der Leyen recalled that the EU is “founded on the values of freedom, democracy, the Rule of law, and respect for human rights. These values are common to all. We must maintain and defend them, even in these difficult times”.
Returning to the topic of emergency measures taken by the Member States, she added that in these “extraordinary times”, “governments must in principle have the necessary tools to act quickly and effectively to protect public health”.
However, “it is of the utmost importance that emergency measures are not taken to the detriment of our fundamental principles and values as laid down in the treaties” and, indirectly referring to Hungarian law, she stated that “democracy cannot function without free and independent media. Respect for freedom of expression and legal certainty are essential in these uncertain times”.
According to Mrs von der Leyen, any emergency measures “must be limited to what is necessary and strictly proportionate. They must not last indefinitely” and “governments must ensure that these measures are subject to regular review”, which the Hungarian law does not provide for.
The Commission will now “analyse” the final law, said institution spokesperson Eric Mamer, and the College will discuss it on 1 April. At this stage, the Commission wants to believe, as Budapest states, that the law is limited to the duration of the crisis and “that Parliament can repeal it before the end of the crisis”.
As regards offences for spreading “fake news”, the Commission recalls that the “relevant” element of its analysis will be the “proportionality of criminal sanctions”.
This reaction disappointed some elected representatives, including Sophie in 't Veld (Renew Europe, Netherlands), who said that “the Commission’s silence is deafening. Now that [the European] Parliament has been sidelined, Viktor Orban has completed his plan to kill democracy and the rule of law in Hungary”.
The group is calling on the EPP party to expel its Hungarian member, who has been suspended since March 2019, and on the Council of the EU to act, despite the fact that it had difficulty in taking up the Article 7 procedure begun by Parliament in 2018.
MEPs from various groups also launched a petition on 31 March calling for Commission action against Budapest as well as against the Polish government.
This is because the ruling PiS government has also been accused by the opposition of taking exceptional measures without the legal framework of an emergency law. A state of emergency law would force the government to suspend the 10 May presidential elections, which would be favourable to the current president, Andrzej Duda. The opposition therefore sees this as a political tactic during a health crisis and argues that the special measures enacted are illegal.
In the rest of the EU, polemics have taken place in Bulgaria, where the ruling party also initially wanted to punish propagators of fake news. In Denmark, the government had to back down on its plan to allow police officers to enter the homes of people who might be contaminated. In France and Belgium, too, arrangements have been made to facilitate the use of exceptional measures by the government, but with some democratic controls.
Link to the petition: https://bit.ly/33WuQ3g (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)