EU rule of law report 'flawed' and 'unfounded': Hungary

Today, the Hungarian Minister of Justice, Judit Varg, described the European Commission’s report on the rule of law in Hungary as flawed and unfounded. In a statement on the social network, she wrote that the evaluation could not serve as a basis for further discussion within the EU. In the report, the commission expressed concerns about the judiciary’s independence and the media in Hungary.

“The Commission’s report on the rule of law is absurd and untrue and cannot serve as a basis for further discussion on the rule of law in the European Union,” Varg said on Facebook today. According to her, the report’s whole concept and methodology are wrong, its sources are unbalanced, and the content is unsubstantiated.

In a chapter on Hungary and Poland, a report presented today by the European Commission states that in some Member States, the direction of change has been “seriously concerned that reforms should not affect the independence of the judiciary.” According to the commission, there is also a risk of politicization of media oversight authorities in Hungary.

According to Fidesz Varg, a member of the governing party, the report’s choice of sources is “biased and non-transparent.” “It is unacceptable that the Commission’s report on the rule of law is written by organizations from a centrally funded international network that has been involved in a coordinated political campaign against Hungary,” Varg said.

According to the Minister, the chapter on Hungary mentions 12 civil society organizations, 11 of which have received financial support from the Open Society Foundation (OSF), which was founded by the American financier of Hungarian origin George Soros. The Hungarian government has long criticized Prime Minister Viktor Orbán Soros. He accuses him, among other things, of interfering in Hungary’s internal affairs or promoting illegal migration.

In her contribution, Vargová claims that Hungary is one of the few EU member states in which “a real plurality of media and ideological debates” persists. Unlike Hungary, according to her, “left and liberal” media dominate in Western Europe.

According to Varg, any impartial analysis of Hungary’s situation can only conclude that “the fundamental values of the European Union are respected and the rule of law upheld.”