In a mini-plenary session on Thursday 1 June, MEPs approved the draft resolution tabled by the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and The Left groups on violations of the rule of law in Hungary and the continued freezing of European funds.
Adopted by a large majority of 442 votes to 144 with 33 abstentions, the resolution also caused a stir as it called into question the country’s ability to hold the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2024.
French MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Greens/EFA), who is responsible for the so-called ‘Article 7’ procedure against Hungary at the European Parliament, even said she was “surprised”, the day before the vote, at the media coverage of this part of the resolution concerning the rotating Presidency, but she was delighted.
The adopted text highlights “the important role of the presidency of the Council in driving forward the Council’s work on EU legislation, ensuring the continuity of the EU agenda and representing the Council in relations with the other EU institutions”.
The European Parliament is therefore questioning how Hungary “will be able to credibly fulfil this task in 2024, in view of its non-compliance with EU law and the values enshrined in Article 2 TEU, as well as the principle of sincere cooperation”.
The MEPs have therefore asked “the Council to find a proper solution as soon as possible”. Several European affairs ministers had already expressed their concerns at the ‘General Affairs’ Council on Tuesday 30 May, expressing doubts about the rotating Presidency (see EUROPE 13190/1). But not all the Member States necessarily intend to challenge these rotating presidencies.
The resolution adopted expresses MEPs’ general concern at a situation that has “been deteriorating in Hungary as a result of the systematic actions of its government”.
Their latest concerns include legislation “adopted in a non-transparent way without the sufficient possibility for parliamentary debates and amendments and without meaningful public consultation; the repeated and abusive invocation of the ‘state of danger’, the misuse of whistleblower protections to undermine LGBTIQ+ rights and freedom of expression, and the restriction of teachers’ status and the infringement of their social and labour rights”, with a right to strike under threat, say the MEPs.
The text also refers to the freezing of European funds for Hungary and calls for this freeze to be maintained until Budapest has remedied all issues concerning the rule of law.
The text states that “adequate control and audit measures are key for the protection of the financial interests of the EU” and that “the current audit and control arrangements put in place by the Hungarian authorities must show concrete results in practice, particularly as regards addressing systemic issues and guaranteeing sufficient reliability of its accounts, before EU funds can be disbursed”.
Link to the resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/76z (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)