The Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union is expected to hold a new hearing in September on the respect of the Rule of law in Hungary and to invite the EU Council to vote “as soon as possible” on recommendations to Budapest, including the abolition of the recent Hungarian law stigmatising LGBTI persons (see EUROPE 12748/1).
This is according to the draft resolution carried by the main groups in the Parliament regarding the human rights violations of LGBTI people in Hungary.
As it debates the issue on 7 July and reviews the 22 June hearings of Hungary and Poland under the so-called ‘Article 7’ procedures of the European Treaty (see EUROPE 12746/1), the European Parliament says, in the text, that it is “deeply concerned” that, since it triggered the procedure in 2018, “the Rule of law and the situation of fundamental rights have continued to deteriorate in Hungary”. It also highlights “the EU Council’s lack of action and accountability in this regard over the years”.
The European Parliament welcomes the fact that the previous Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council re-launched these hearings after a pause of one and a half years. It “stresses, however, that the dialogue must produce tangible results in terms of actions to actively address” the deteriorations in the country. The Parliament thus asks the EU Council to vote and issue concrete recommendations, “including a recommendation to repeal the law” in Hungary.
Furthermore, the Parliament draft resolution highlights that the situation of LGBTI people has been deteriorating “for years” in Hungary, while some media outlets are harassed and increasingly subject to censorship or a contrario, other media outlets close to the government target minorities, including LGBTI people.
The resolution, which will be adopted on Thursday 8 July, calls on the Commission and the EU Council to take action, in particular via the mechanism making the granting of European funds conditional on respect for the Rule of law (see other news) or by unblocking the horizontal ‘anti-discrimination’ Directive.
On the morning of 6 July, the Chair of the EPP group, Germany’s Manfred Weber, called for an end to “endless discussions” in the context of ineffective ‘Article 7’ procedures and for concrete action, for example by referring the case to the Court of Justice of the EU when a problem is detected.
The EPP group had at one time considered a separate resolution, a source said, but finally agreed by a large majority to the text involving the S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and The Left groups.
Link to the European Parliament draft resolution: https://bit.ly/2VePVFR (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)