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STRASBOURG (ANP) – The new European Parliament will continue with a tough approach to Hungary, announced Dutch Member of the European Parliament Tineke Strik at a press conference in the European Parliament. She spoke shortly before Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán would also address the press in the same building.
During the period of the previous European Parliament, Strik from GroenLinks, as a Member of the European Parliament, was one of the leaders in taking a hard line against Hungary. With the new European Parliament, nothing changes, according to Strik. She intends to continue her task with a team of Members of the European Parliament from various political parties to call Hungary to order. As far as she is concerned, the so-called Article-7 procedure that imposes penalties on Hungary, such as freezing assets, should move to the next phase. That means that the country would also be stripped of its European voting rights.
Strik is the special rapporteur of the European Parliament for the situation in Hungary. In that capacity, she visited the country last week. She was shocked by what she found there, she said. “Rules are changed from one day to the next.” As a result, the legal uncertainty for interest groups and opposition parties has only increased, according to Strik.
Therefore, as far as she is concerned, the European Parliament must continue to put pressure on EU countries and the new European Commission “to respond with a much stronger sense of urgency”. Because everyone can see “where impunity leads”, namely not only to more unjust convictions in Hungary, but also to the spread of impunity to other member states.
The EU countries began the so-called Article-7 procedure against Hungary in 2018, eight years after Orbán became prime minister. “Now we are six years later and the situation has only worsened. Judgments of the European court are not respected and the independence of the judiciary is undermined by both judges and prosecutors.”
(8 October 2024)