Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Administration and Justice Tibor Navracsics stated on Thursday that Hungary has given qualified acceptance to the 2012 Report on the Implementation of the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights, conditional on release of a political statement by the Government with regard to it; the statement objects to the findings concerning Hungary on four points.
Justice Ministers of EU Member States held meetings in Luxembourg, and one item on the agenda was acceptance of the report made public on 8 May this year related to questions on last year's application and enforcement of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and to problems encountered on this subject during the course of the year.
Mr Navracsics said that "The first point we object to in the report is that, despite our repeated requests, there is no mention of the fact that the Hungarian Constitutional Court declared legislation on judges' retirement to be unconstitutional before the European Court of Justice made a ruling on the case. Thus, when the Court came to its decision, the legislation was no longer in force."
The second objection, the Minister explained, is that – once again despite repeated Hungarian requests – the report does not refer to the fact that two months before its publication on 11 March, the Parliament of Hungary had already adopted the legislative changes deemed necessary in the European Court of Justice’s ruling.He stated that the report does not make the slightest mention of this fact.
The third objection that Hungary has raised is the report’s lack of reference to the fact that there was constructive and continuous dialogue between the Hungarian Government and the European Commission throughout the process leading up to the resolution of disputed questions.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the fourth and final point objected to by the Hungarian Government is that, for no apparent reason, the report for 2012 refers to the Hungarian Media Act – even though consultations with the European Commission relating to this legislation were completed in 2011, and the legislative changes necessary with respect to Community law took place in that year. Thus, said Mr Navracsics, by 2012 there were no longer any outstanding questions related to media legislation that would have required inclusion in a report for 2012.
The Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister highlighted that there had previously been a relatively high number of questions for debate with the European Commission, but now – with the strong support of the Irish presidency – in the Report on the Charter of Fundamental Rights it has proven possible to express Hungarian viewpoints in a way that constitute a set of criteria for future reports.
In outlining the set of viewpoints that have finally enabled Hungary to give qualified acceptance to the 2012 report, Mr Navracsics went on to say that the most prominent is the principle that in future the evaluation process must take place in the manner laid down in the Treaties of the EU, and on the basis of the facts. These facts must be capable of comparison across Member States, and the entire evaluation must be based on the equality of Member States.
In their joint resolution on the acceptance of the report, justice ministers from Member States called upon the European Commission to pursue ‘inclusive dialogue’ and discussions with Member States, other EU institutions and relevant stakeholders to combat extreme forms of intolerance, racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and homophobia, in the interests of the enhanced protection of fundamental European values, especially the rule of law and the enforcement of fundamental human rights.
(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)