International Federation
for Human Rights

The European Parliament was faced with a crucial choice today, which would have far-reaching implications beyond Hungary, but also for the future of the Union as a whole. By deciding to adopt a reasoned proposal to the European Council to activate the preventive mechanism foreseen under Article 7(1) TEU, in order to protect the EU’s founding values as enshrined in Article 2 TEU, the European Parliament has sent a strong signal that it is prepared to do whatever is necessary to ensure the thorough respect for the principles at the very core of the Union.

FIDH applauds the result of today’s vote, as the Article 7(1) TEU procedure was one of the last remaining tools to address the situation in Hungary in its entirety, where the governing party, Fidesz, through it supermajority in Parliament, has been implementing its anti-democratic agenda since coming into power 8 years ago. Democracy, the rule of law, and human rights have been seriously undermined since, from weakening the independence of the judiciary, criminalising legitimate migration activities, shrinking media pluralism, restricting freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, strangulating civil society voices, curbing academic freedom, among others. These developments rightfully led to the conclusion, in the July 2018 Sargentini report, that « There is a clear risk of a serious breach by Hungary of the values on which the Union is founded, » thus warranting the triggering of Article 7(1) TEU.

The vote comes at a worrying time where xenonophobes and populists are on the rise in other member States, sometimes openly following the lead of Fidesz.

FIDH strongly hopes that today’s vote will bear fruit in bringing the Hungarian government back in line with the EU’s founding principles, without the necessity of sanctions being pronounced. However, FIDH calls on the European Union, and especially the Council, to follow the lead of its Parliament and make use of all tools available and necessary to achieve such result so that all these efforts are not in vain.

Background

In a resolution adopted in May 2017 on the situation in Hungary, the European Parliament (EP) agreed to trigger the procedure laid out in Article 7 of the TEU, by instructing its Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee to draw up a report with a view to adopting a reasoned proposal calling on the Council to act pursuant to Article 7(1) TEU. This represented a historic step towards accountability for the Hungarian government’s repeated breaches of the EU’s founding principles as enshrined in Article 2 TEU. The resolution followed five other resolutions adopted by the European Parliament between 2011 and 2015 and comes over six years after the EP first addressed the situation in Hungary in March 2011.
Pursuant to the May 2017 resolution, MEP Judith Sargentini drafted a report on a « Proposal for a Council decision determining, pursuant to Article 7(1) of the Treaty on European Union, the existence of a clear risk of a serious breach by Hungary of the values on which the Union is founded, » in July 2018. The report concludes: « There is a clear risk of a serious breach by Hungary of the values on which the Union is founded. » The report, and thus the possibility to move forward with the Article 7(1) procedure on the situation of Hungary, was adopted today by MEPs.

FIDH documented the situation in Hungary over the past few years, advocating for concrete action to be taken by the European institutions against an increasing deterioration of the rule of law and human rights in this member State and to send a strong message to all member states that the EU’s founding values cannot be sold off. In October 2015, it carried out a fact-finding mission to Hungary, whose findings and conclusions are presented in its report "Hungary: Democracy under Threat, Six Years of Attacks against the Rule of Law," published in November 2016. The report documented attacks against the rule of law and human rights in Hungary since the current government came into power in 2010. It recommended that the EU take action, including by resorting to the Article 7 TEU procedure, in order to respond to a clear risk of a serious breach by Hungary of the EU’s founding values, as enshrined in Article 2 TEU. In April 2017, FIDH carried out another visit to Hungary, notably to gather information about recent developments regarding the National Higher Education Act and the Act ’on the Transparency of Organisations Receiving Foreign Funds’ (NGO law). In July 2018, FIDH has published an open letter regarding the proposed Law on the taxation of civil society organisations working with migrants and receiving foreign funding, the Law on the protection of privacy (Draft Bill T/706) and the Law on freedom of assembly (Draft Bill T/707). Most recently, FIDH, together with Amnesty International, the Open Society European Policy Institute, Reporters Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, and other European and Hungarian civil society organisations, has been campaigning for MEPs to vote in favour of the adoption of a reasoned proposal to the European Council to activate the preventive mechanism foreseen under Article 7(1) TEU regarding the situation in Hungary.

Article 7 TEU

Article 7 TEU provides for a mechanism to be activated when there is a clear risk of a serious breach by a member State of the values referred to in Article 2 TEU (Article 7 (1)). Once the existence of a serious and persistent breach is determined, and after inviting the Member State in question to submit its observations (Article 7 (2)), the Council may decide to suspend certain of the rights deriving from the application of the Treaties to the member state in question, including the voting rights of the representative of the government of that Member State in the Council (Article 7 (3)). The Council may always decide to vary or revoke measures taken under paragraph 3 in response to changes in the situation which led to their being imposed (Article 7 (4)).