‘Rule-of-law’ Attacks on Hungary Should Be “Maintained,” Brussels Says

Any country that has the temerity to insist on its sovereignty and culture is 'undermining the rule of law' according to the Eurocratic elite.

From The European Conservative

By Zoltán Kottász

EU institutions continue waging lawfare on conservative government for ideological reasons

The European Commission believes its Article 7 procedure against Hungary “should be maintained for as long as the issues that triggered it are not solved.” European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders made these comments on Wednesday, April 10th during yet another debate in the European Parliament (EP) on the ‘rule-of-law’ situation in Hungary.

The conservative Hungarian Fidesz government has repeatedly been in the crosshairs of Eurocrats for reasons of ideological differences rather than—as the EU claims—violations of “common European values.”

The EP first voted for action against Hungary in 2018 under the EU Treaty’s Article 7 over alleged breaches of the EU’s core values—citing as key concerns judicial independence, freedom of expression, corruption, rights of minorities, and the situation of migrants and refugees. According to Article 7, a member states’ rights, including voting rights, can be suspended if it is established that it is persistently breaching the EU’s “values,” such as respect for freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights. The European Council (the body of the governments of member states) would have to unanimously agree on suspending Hungary’s rights but there has been no appetite among the majority of governments for such a drastic step.

Article 7 is just one of many ‘rule-of-law’ procedures that have been launched in previous years against Hungary, whose conservative Fidesz government has angered Western liberals and Brussels bureaucrats for its uncompromising conservative stance on issues such as migration, sovereignty, and gender ideology. “You have a majority of people who voted for the government, but because it isn’t a leftist majority, [Prime Minister] Viktor Orbán is being targeted,” Harald Vilimsky of the conservative Austrian FPÖ party noted during Wednesday’s debate.

Fidesz MEP Tamás Deutsch said the Hungarian government would not give in to political blackmail by the EP, and that the pressure exerted on Hungary was due to the fact that the country rejects illegal migration and the sending of weapons to Ukraine. No matter how many more resolutions the Parliament passes, the government would protect the freedom and national sovereignty of Hungary, he added.

The fact that the European Parliament’s attacks on Hungary are politically motivated and have nothing to do with the law, was made visibly clear a few weeks ago when it sued the Commission in the European Court of Justice over its unblocking of €10 billion EU funds owed to Hungary. Didier Reynders said the Commission acted in full compliance with EU law when it decided in December to unblock cohesion policy funds for Hungary. He said that a new law strengthening judicial independence was passed by Hungary, and therefore met the conditions set by Brussels. However, he stressed that most of the EU funds remain frozen because of concerns relating to issues such as corruption, academic freedom, and LGBT rights, therefore, the European Council should maintain the Article 7 procedure on its agenda “until all of the concerns related to this have been dealt with in a satisfactory way.”

Left-wing and liberal lawmakers denounced both the Council and the Commission, with Socialist Dutch MEP Thijs Reuten saying that Hungary should no longer have a vote in the Council, and the Commission should not have unblocked EU funds.

Pictured: European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders