On Tuesday 22 June, the Ministers for European Affairs held hearings with Hungary and Poland under the ‘Article 7’ procedure launched by the European Parliament in 2018 and by the Commission in 2017, respectively. This comes in a tense context, after the recent Hungarian law banning the “promotion of gender identity deviation, sex change, and homosexuality” among minors.
Thirteen countries expressed their concerns about the situation of gay rights in Hungary. Also on Poland, they reiterated their concerns about threats to the independence of the judiciary.
For the Vice-President of the Commission for Values and Transparency, Vera Jourová, these rule of law issues are “a cornerstone of the EU” and it is “important to continue the hearings”, she commented after the meeting.
“Much has changed” in both countries since the last hearings (held in 2019) and not in a positive way, with “many concerns remaining”.
On Hungary, the Vice-President said that the Commission was “looking into whether the law is in breach of EU law”, which it had not yet been able to establish.
And as far as Poland is concerned, at this hearing, she mentioned the recent challenges to the rule of EU law and the independence of the judiciary.
Hungary: 13 countries denounce law discriminating against LGBTIQ people
But the focus on Tuesday was on Hungary, after the Hungarian parliament adopted provisions stigmatising LGBTIQ people (see EUROPE 12743/24).
The Hungarian hearing, which was last held at the end of 2019, lasted 2 hours and was “tense”, according to one source. About 10 countries took the floor. The Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg) issued a declaration on this occasion, supported by France, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, and Latvia.
The 13 countries express their “grave concerns” about the law which criminalises LGBTIQ rights and violates freedom of expression “under the pretext of protecting children”. This is “blatant discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity”.
The Commission has been asked to use all legal tools against this law, including referring Hungary to the EU Court of Justice, the statement said.
Faced with these Member States, Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga defended the law, insisting on the traditional role of the family, with “the mother being a woman and the father a man” and asking that children discover themselves, without being influenced by a homosexual “lobby”, she wrote on her Twitter account.
She also denounced the hearings as “blackmail” and criticised a kind of “brainwashing” by ministers, a source said.
Ms Jourová remained measured, but stressed that it is important that “diversity” is not restricted in Hungary.
An “anti-European” law
On his arrival in Luxembourg on Tuesday, the Luxembourg Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jean Asselborn, condemned a “very bad law, which is not European” and “unworthy of Europe”.
Dutch Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag also said that the law “is not worthy of Europe and its values”. “We call on Hungary to repeal this law”, she added.
For Clément Beaune, the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, who was to have bilateral talks with Ms Varga, this law which “equates homosexuality with a threat and propaganda is something we cannot accept”, he commented. “All options are open when there are such serious violations”, he also warned.
For his part, German State Secretary Michael Roth denounced a law that “clearly violates EU values”. The Irish Minister for European Affairs, Thomas Byrne, called it a “very dangerous moment for Hungary and for the Union”.
When asked by EUROPE, the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council did not specify its intentions regarding possible future hearings.
Poland
On Poland and the various judicial reforms that threaten the independence of judges, the discussion lasted almost 2 hours, according to one source, with around eight Member States taking the floor. Their questions focused on the Supreme Court, the independence of the judiciary, and Warsaw’s compliance with the rule of EU law, but the Polish government reportedly denied that there were problems and a lack of independence.
On the primacy of EU law, they “said that it is the right of each country, recognised in the treaties, to specify when the EU exceeds the limit of its competences” and that solutions can be examined when conflicts of law arise, a source said.
The Vice-President of the Commission, for her part, recalled that “it is the Court of Justice of the EU that has the final word”. “We have exactly the same approach with Germany”, she said.
Greens/EFA and S&D groups want sanctions
In a statement ahead of the meeting, the S&D group in the European Parliament called on “Member States to finally take the Article 7 procedures seriously” and to declare “that there is a clear risk of serious violation of the rule of law and European values by the PiS-led government in Poland and the Fidesz-led government in Hungary”.
The Commission must “immediately and effectively use all the tools at its disposal to stop these violations, including the new conditionality mechanism, without further delay”.
French MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Greens/EFA), rapporteur on the situation of the rule of law in Hungary, called for the same. “The EU Council must take its responsibility and start working on recommendations.”
Link to the 13 countries’ declaration: https://bit.ly/3zXFJS7 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)