Presenting the European Commission’s 2024 rule of law report in Brussels on Wednesday, Commissioner Vera Jourova said more than 68 percent of the recommendations of last year’s report have been fully or partially complied with, but the situation remains concerning in certain member states.
Jourova, the EC’s Vice-President for Values and Transparency, said the state of judicial independence was “concerning” in certain countries and was deteriorating in some others.
She said corruption was also concerning in the bloc, and called for measures to strengthen the framework for the prevention of graft in connection with lobbying activities, conflicts of interest and asset declarations. The effective investigation and prosecution of corruption should also be strengthened, she said.
The country report on Hungary said the country has started implementing the 2023 judiciary reform. “The National Judicial Council is exercising its new competences to effectively counterbalance the powers of the President of the National Office for the Judiciary,” the report said.
While case allocation at Hungary’s Supreme Court, the Kuria, has become more transparent, the same in lower courts remains concerning, the report said. “The freedom of expression of judges remains under pressure and smear campaigns against judges continue in the media. The level of remuneration of judges and court staff has further deteriorated,” the report said.
Hungary has adopted a new anti-corruption strategy and legislation against lobbying and the “revolving door effect” were in planning, the report said. At the same time, “enforcement and oversight remain an issue as regards asset declarations.”
On the matter of institutional safeguards, the EC found that “the new Integrity Authority reports certain obstacles in fulfilling its oversight tasks effectively, and the impact in practice of the Anti-Corruption Task Force remains to be seen.”
While some high-profile corruption cases have reached the indictment stage, Hungary had yet to investigate corruption charges against high-ranking officials or their immediate circle, the report said.
“The suspension of commitments from EU funds under several EU programmes and the lack of disbursements following a payment request under the Recovery and Resilience Plan persist, as no new measures have been adopted to remedy the outstanding rule of law and anti-corruption issues,” the EC said.
Hungary’s government has yet to plan measures to regulate state advertising in state media, and to ensure the independence of the media authority and the editorial and financial independence of public media, it said. “Journalists and independent media outlets continue to face numerous challenges including seemingly coordinated smear and de-legitimisation campaigns, and selective access to government premises and events.”
The report also criticised “the quality of law-making and the frequent changes of legislation” in Hungary, adding that “the Constitutional Court still reviews the merits of final rulings of ordinary courts in politically sensitive cases”.
In Hungary, “obstacles affecting civil society organisations persist, while the new Protection of National Sovereignty Act further undermines civic space. Concerns related to the State’s role in financing civil society continue,” the report said.
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The Brussels hoax never stops. It is obvious that all non-socialist countries are unjustly blamed.
Why should Meloni put up with malicious slurs and insults? Why should Italians be subjected to socialist reporters’ lies. If Brussels was interested in justice, it would require honesty in reporting.
Hungary is totally right in investigating groups financed by foreign money. Over the years CIA financed groups in Latin America trying to force change of regime. Socialists are financing groups from Norway and Soros to force Hungary to accept uneducated aliens when the majority of people of the country voted against by referendum. Anti Orban groups are continually financed by foreign entities. The minority people that accept the money are in fact betraying the nation when working on behalf of the interest of another group or nation. There are more media and web sites that are critical of the Orban government than those that support him, the empirical data was published recently. If Vera wanted to be fair, she would have dropped media from her list. Government advertisement is obvious, it is on billboards, media, etc., nothing is hidden.
Slovakian government made changes that benefit her people. Firing a special counsel is no big deal. Prosecutors in Slovakia are quite capable of persecuting all crimes and does not require extra staff to be supported by taxpayers.
Vera Jourová is a prejudice old hag, who makes statements without facts or twists facts to suit her rhetoric. If we follow Vera’s logic, no nation in the EU have sovereignty and Brussels is the ultimate dictator. That is totally unacceptable.
That’s the same E.U. that allows hundreds of thousands of hostile, fighting-age men to cross its borders illegally, with zero consequences, every single year. THEY presume to lecture anyone about “rule of law”!? LOOOOOOOOOL!!!