Tens of thousands of Hungarians went down to the street during the weekend after the Hungarian government has filed new legislation to monitor foreign funding for NGOs and the media or anyone who has judged a threat to what it considers a Hungarian sovereign interest.
The bill is described as “transparency of public life” and the government says that it aims to protect the sovereignty of Hungary against external interference. But activists say that he imitates the law of foreign agents in Russia and in the same way the Hungarian government for sweeping powers to repress the press and critical voices in civil society.
The demonstrations are the latest cry from Hungarian aid by looking at the European Union to reign in their government.
Some of the demonstrators before the Parliament in the Hungarian capital Budapest held a large flag of the European Union printed with English aid.
What is the new “transparency law” of Hungary?
If the bill was to turn into law, according to activists, the government could control the media and NGOs or even dissolve them.
In December 2023, Hungary adopted a national law on “defense of sovereignty” and established what it called an office of protection of sovereignty (SPO) to investigate organizations that use foreign funds to influence voters.
With the new law, this agency will be responsible for investigating all kinds of organizations and authorized to end persons who receive foreign funding without the approval of the previous government.
If it is put on black list, organizations will also lose access to donations thanks to the annual tax contributions of 1% of Hungary, potentially pay a fine of 25 times these funds, and their owners will be made to declare their assets.
The reports suggest that the country’s secret services have been authorized to help SPO to any survey.
Tineke Strik, Hungary Rapporteur of the European Parliament, told DW that the Hungarian Transparency Bill was aimed at “dissolving all organizations, all the media, even punishing all individuals, who criticize the government. This is exactly what Russian law does”.
The law of foreign agents of Russia was adopted in mid-20122, in what human law organizations described as a maculination campaign to discredit the legitimate Russian civic activism.
“The law expands the definition of the foreign agent to a point where almost any person or entity, regardless of nationality or the place, which engages in civic activism or even expresses opinions on Russian policies or the conduct of civil servants could be designated by a foreign agent, as long as the authorities claim to be under foreign influence ‘ said.
The “transparency” bill of Hungary “authoritarian”
Peter Magyar, the leader of the Opposition Party of Hungary, Tisza, and the only Hungarian politician considered as a credible challenger for the 14 -year grip of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, also accused the government of adopting Russian style legislation to get rid of the financing of militants and journalists, including through the EU subsidies. He said that he “copied his master, (Russian president) Vladimir Putin”.
A declaration signed by 300 international organizations, including the organization of human rights, Amnesty International described the bill as an “authoritarian attempt to preserve power” which “aims to silence all critical voices and to eliminate what remains of Hungarian democracy”.
The Transparency International non -profit group said the new bill had threatened to “end civil society” And, if it were adopted, will allow the government to “persecute with impunity”.
He indicated that the law would apply to EU subsidies and foreign donations as small as € 5 ($ 5.70), and this “vague language” adopted in the bill left “a large political usage room, threatening a large band of civil society – including independent media, surveillance organizations and ordinary citizens engaged in public life”.
Last year, Georgia adopted a similar law in the middle of an outcry at home and in Brussels. This decision is suspected of having scuttled the chances of the country to join the EU.
But while Georgia is an EU candidate nation, Hungary is a full member of the block.
What could the EU do to ensure that Hungary align with the EU values system?
Zsuzsanna VEGH, a program agent from German Marshall Fund in the United States, said that theoretically, the EU could move forward with the article 7 procedure that it initiated for the first time in 2018.
The European Union Treaty describes a procedure to combat the serious and persistent violations of the EU values by the Member States under article 7. It allows the suspension of certain rights, including voting rights to the Council of the European Union, if a member is determined as being in repeated violation of the fundamental principles of the EU, such as the weakening of the rule of law, democracy and freedoms.
“The EU could declare that there is indeed a systematic violation of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary and suspend its voting rights” to the Council of the European Union, where the debate block and decides its policies, “said Vegh.
“But it’s always a political decision and it’s unlikely.”
Some European parliamentarians have recommended that Hungarian EU Hungary financing the force to reduce corruption which has an unfavorable impact on the financial interests of the EU. But experts say that the same method could also be effective in encouraging Hungary to stick to the EU values system.
“We urge the European Commission to increase the pressure on the government of Viktor Orban to stop violating the EU and EU laws by immediately suspending all EU funding for Hungary, in accordance with the applicable legislation to protect the financial interest of the Union,” wrote more than two dozen EU parliamentarians in a letter to the European Commission on May 20.
VEGH said that if Hungary funds had already been cut, there was no EU precedent cutting all the funding marked for a Member State.
However, Teona Lavrelashvili, a scholarship holder invited to the Wilfried Martens Center in Brussels, said that could be done.
“Yes, the European Union may suspend funds in Hungary if its new transparency bill – or any law – undermines the rule of law or threatens the financial interests of the EU. This power comes from the conditionality mechanism of the rule of law.”
She argued that a law that weakens civil society also undermines the overall economic interests of the EU.
What is the next most likely step in the EU?
The EU also has other options it can use before cutting funds intended to help economic development in Hungary and therefore for the benefit of the general population.
In 2017, he managed to dissuade Hungary from introducing a similar transparency law by initiating a offense procedure, a multilayer process by which the EU expressed its dissatisfaction with Hungary. No change in Budapest attitudes, Brussels finally took Hungary to the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU)
The Court concluded that Hungary had “introduced discriminatory and unjustified restrictions on foreign donations to civil society organizations”.
Since the new bill was tabled last week, the EU has refrained from reprimanding Hungary and simply declared that she was waiting to see if she was promulgated.
VEGH thinks that another offense procedure is the next probable step in the EU.
But the fact that Hungary is trying to go through the law again, can force the EU to change its approach and take a more severe position.
Published by: A. Thomas
