The European Commission announced today that it is taking Hungary to the European Court of Justice over its controversial “sovereignty” law passed at the end of 2023, AFP and Reuters reported.
“Having made a thorough assessment of the response of the Hungarian authorities, the European Commission claims that most of the complaints mentioned have not yet been addressed,” the EC said in a statement.
The law, which provides for prison sentences, creates a monitoring body that is supposed to prevent “foreign interference” in the electoral process and “protect the sovereignty” of the country.
NGOs and opponents of Orbán see this as a new attack aimed at silencing his opposition forces.
In February, the EC expressed serious concern about this issue and initiated legal proceedings against Hungary with a letter of formal notice for violations of European Union law.
The Hungarian government has warned it will not back down, marking another episode in the ongoing confrontation between Orbán and his EU partners. Budapest regularly accuses Brussels and “various foreign organizations”, especially American ones, of “distributing billions of euros” to the opposition in order to “influence the choice of voters”.
Hungary’s legislative package, drawn up ahead of European and local elections in June 2024, creates an “independent sovereignty protection service” tasked with “investigating illegal attacks” that threaten national security. The activities of organizations receiving foreign funding are affected, AFP notes.
Several human rights NGOs, including Amnesty International, have accused the government of trying to “silence critical voices”, believing that “journalists, businesses, trade unions, churches and municipalities” could be object of assault.
The US said it was “disturbed” by a “law inconsistent with our shared values ​​of democracy, personal liberty and the rule of law” that gives the government “draconian tools that can be used to intimidate and punish people whose views are not shared by the ruling party” FIDES.
