Hungary Judicial Independence Brief by FIDH on Scribd
Judicial Independence (Still) Under Threat in Hungary
Since coming to power in 2010, the Fidesz Party led by Prime Minister Victor Orbán has enacted a series of far-reaching reforms representing a significant threat to democratic checks and balances by targeting the independence of the judiciary, and other institutions empowered to constrain majoritarian action, raising in turn serious concerns about respect for fundamental EU principles, chief among them the rule of law and human rights. In this context, the European Parliament triggered the procedure laid down in Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) with respect to Hungary in September 2018, calling on the Council to scrutinize the Hungarian government’s respect for those principles. Ahead of the discussions that are set to take place in the Council, this brief addresses concerns about recent developments on judicial independence in Hungary of relevance to the ongoing Article 7 TEU procedure. These complement those raised by the European Parliament and by civil society organisations since 2010. The brief points to a continued deterioration of judicial independence and of the rule of law in Hungary consistent with the grounds cited by the EP in triggering the Article 7 procedure. It calls on the Council to take these latest developments into account when examining the situation and to question the Hungarian government on its conformity with the principles laid down in Article 2 TEU.