Steven N.Justice Minister Judit Varga is expected to attend another hearing in connection with the EU’s Article 7 procedure against Hungary, reports Népszava. Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union provides for the suspension of certain rights from member states.
The news outlet has learned that the Orbán government is against opening a debate on the findings of the latest parliamentary resolution in the Council of Ministers. The Hungarian side is arguing that only the topics in the original European Parliament report that launched the Article 7 procedure should be put on the meeting agenda.
No specific topic is expected to be discussed at the hearing, so all of the problems with the rule of law in Hungary that Judith Sargentini wrote about in her report that launched the procedure in 2018 are fair game, including corruption, discrimination, secret surveillance, attacks on judicial independence, and freedom of the press.
An updated version of the report from four years ago, claiming that the Hungarian democratic system has been replaced by a form of hybrid electoral autocracy, was adopted by the EU representative body in September this year.
A hearing on the state of the rule of law in Hungary was last held in the EU body this past May. [444]
