Hungary and its emergency measures against Covid-19, but also those of Poland, although not the subject of a specific debate, should not be forgotten by parliamentarians in their resolution put to the vote on Friday 17 April.
All European Parliament groups, with the exception of the ECR and GUE/NGL, should therefore consider "completely incompatible with European values both the Hungarian government's decision to extend the state of emergency indefinitely, to authorise itself to legislate by decree without any time limit on this power and to weaken parliamentary control, and the measures taken by the Polish government, namely to amend the electoral code (...) and to organise presidential elections in the midst of the pandemic".
They should also generally stress that "all measures adopted at national or European level must comply with the rule of law, be strictly proportionate to the requirements of the situation, clearly linked to the ongoing health crisis, limited in time and subject to regular review".
If the ECR criticised this text aimed at its Polish ally in the PiS, it is precisely the reference to the Polish case that enabled the EPP Group to rally to the text, which also refers directly to the Hungarian emergency measures. The group, otherwise divided over the 'case' of Viktor Orbán, "can live with it", says one source. The GUE/NGL, for its part, denounced a text full of "platitudes".
Budgetary sanctions
MEPs should also call on the Commission to "assess without delay the conformity of the emergency measures with the Treaties and to make full use of all the tools and sanctions available to the Union, including budgetary measures, to combat this serious and repeated infringement". As for the Council, it is requested to reinstate work on Article 7 on its agenda.
The parliamentary groups had agreed on 2 April not to hold a specific debate on Hungary, but to entrust President David Sassoli with the task of writing to the Commission, which was done the following day. Ursula von der Leyen replied to the letter on 7 April. In her reply, she confirms that the Hungarian case is of greater concern than others in that the emergency measures appear to be more "extensive" than elsewhere, particularly in view of the fact that there is no "clear time limit".
During the debate by MEPs on Thursday morning (see other news), however, the President did not return to the Hungarian case. In the hemicycle, it was above all the Romanian Dacian Cioloș, President of Renew Europe, who was the most virulent, stating that "authoritarian regimes are no better armed" than others to face the pandemic and that "under no circumstances" should fundamental freedoms be called into question. "This is something that everyone needs to hear, including Viktor Orbán", said the Liberal.
Link to the letter of Mrs von der Leyen: https://bit.ly/3agbk3b (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)