Will the EU hold Hungary to its rule of law obligations? Hopefully, yes.

This week  an urgent fact-finding delegation to assess whether Hungary is upholding it’s rule of law structure  has been dispatched from the European Parliament. This is important as Hungary has been pushing the edges of its EU membership. This specific assessment has been begun due to actions by Hungary’s government, including the fact that “the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty has targeted NGOs, the police have raided the offices of the Integrity Authority, and the government has introduced judicial reforms that are closely linked to the increase in judges’ salaries.”

In any environment these issues are important but in Hungary, which has been moving backwards, becoming a  “electoral autocracy” in its approach to rule of law and targeting its anti-corruption bodies.

This will need to be followed, as we need to ensure that the European Parliament will take their role seriously during this time and ensure that the EU will follow up on the Article 7 procedure, if needed. The citizens of Hungary should be able to rely on the EU and to ensure that the reforms, particularly in anti-corruption do not stall or move backwards, but move forward to hold the Hungarian government accountable.

Link:

https://dailynewshungary.com/hungary-ep-delegation-rule-of-law/#google_vignette