Debate: Emergency Legislation in Hungary and its impact on the Rule of Law and fundamental rights
Date: THURSDAY, 14 MAY 2020
Speaker: Věra Jourová
Language: EN

We live in very challenging times, we live in an extraordinary situation which requires extraordinary and special measures to be taken. When we look at the extraordinary measures and the emergency regimes, we have to – and I’ve also repeated what I said at the beginning – look into how the regime is applied, and here there are very clear requirements that measures must be – only to the extent necessary – relevant for the solution or tackling the Corona crisis, proportionate measures and also time a limit. And the time limit is something where we have the biggest concerns regarding the Hungarian regime. The Commission is monitoring the situation in all states, but in the case of Hungary I can reveal to you today that I have daily reports. I have weekly reports from our permanent representations, but I am following very closely the Hungarian situation daily reports. I am very well informed about the cases now of two people who were detained in relation to the spread of so-called fake news. I am informed about the actions taken by the government in relation to self-government and so on.  On a daily basis we are assessing whether we can take legal action. And I said before, and I will repeat it here: we are not opening infringement proceedings on Hungary yet. We are closely monitoring all the measures, and we also have to take into consideration that in our toolbox is also Article 7 and that the debate in the Council is ongoing and I am sure we will come back to it when the Council holds the General Affairs Council session.  But on concrete measures, because we said that we are monitoring all the concrete measures taken under the emergency regime, I would like to be more concrete here to give you some examples. The Commission’s attention has been drawn to certain degrees which allow employers and employees to agree bilaterally to derogate from almost all provisions of the Hungarian labour code. As the labour code transposes several EU directives the Commission is currently analysing these measures as regards their compatibility with EU labour and social law. Also, the Commission is examining several decrees as regards their compatibility with the General Data Protection Regulation. Just these two examples of the concrete focus of the Commission in these days. And indeed, many of you mentioned here that there should be EU money should be provisional on the distribution conditioned by the basic principles of the rule of law in the countries. Well, when I came with this idea in 2017, it created a lot of noise, people said ‘we cannot go that far’. I think now, with the situation developing in a wrong direction in a couple of states, we see that making money conditional on compliance with the basic principles set out in Article 2 of the Treaty is the proper thing to do. Today, the Commission will have the debate about the Multiannual Financial Framework, about the budget for the next seven years. I will emphasise again and again in every fora at which I have a chance to speak about the new budget, that the conditionality has to be maintained and that the system of voting about the concrete cases must not be voted down. And I am happy that this is still in the negotiating box of the budget and it has to remain there and it has to keep its teeth because the Commission proposed something which might really create or bring about some real difference.  We have now the joint European roadmap towards lifting COVID-19 containment measures after 15 April and we underlined that the general state of emergency is exceptional emergency powers for governments should be progressively replaced by more targeted interventions in line with constitutional arrangements of each country. So this is what we expect Hungary to do, to go along with the rest of the other Member States and to release the confinement measures and to come back to what I already called before ‘old normal’, or at least the old normal. And again, the context relating to Hungary is that this is the country which is under the Article 7 procedure.  So we must build our new steps and next steps on the basis of common values. We must come back to normal checks and balances and the citizens must benefit fully from their rights.  If I can have a little bit longer I would like to add something a little bit personal and I will speak Czech. I remember very well the time – I said I would speak Czech ... you see, after six years of being here it’s deformation... Velmi dobře si pamatuju dobu, kdy bylo Československo okupovanou zemí od roku devatenáct set šedesát osm. Okupace a totalitní režim nás všechny velice ovlivnil. Žili jsme ve strachu a snili jsme o tom, že jednoho dne budeme žít ve svobodné společnosti, že jednoho dne přijde ke slovu a bude uskutečněna naše touha po svobodě, touha po aktivním občanství, že budeme mít možnost svobody slova, že budeme mít fungující samosprávy, které budou dostatečně finančně vybaveny, aby dělaly kvalitní veřejnou službu, že budeme mít svobodné volby, které zajistí střídání lidí u moci, že budeme mít mocné, ale ne všemocné, že nikdo nebude v té naší krásné zemi nad zákonem, že budeme mít otevřené hranice, že si budeme užívat otevřenosti, svobody a občanského sebevědomí. Dámy a pánové, dnes jsme okupováni koronavirem a mnoho státníků Evropské unie řeklo, že v této době je nezbytné omezení některých svobod a že se budeme muset smířit s tím, že po velice krátkou limitovanou dobu, po dobu nezbytnou, budeme muset tato omezení snést. Zároveň státníci řekli jasně lidem, že mohou očekávat návrat ke všem těm úžasným věcem, které jsem tady před chvílí vyjmenovala, těm věcem, o kterých jsme snili v totalitním Československu. Já tomu věřím, že se to stane. Věřím tomu, že v zemích, kde jsou pochybnosti – a dnes se bavíme o Maďarsku –, že i občané Maďarska budou toužit po tom, aby se Maďarsko vrátilo k demokratickým principům a že se toho dočkáme minimálně teď, po skončení té koronavirové okupace, ale že budeme muset dál s Maďarskem vést dialog, že bude muset Komise dělat svou práci a reagovat právním způsobem podle pravidel, pokud k tomu budou všechny právní podmínky, že bude muset i mezinárodní společenství vyvíjet tlak na Maďarsko, aby se vrátilo do klubu bezpochybně demokratických zemí. Přála bych si to, protože tady není v sázce jenom situace v Maďarsku, ale je to vlastně velká výzva pro celou Evropskou unii. Děkuji Vám i za tu možnost, že jsem mohla tady říct trošku ze svých osobních vzpomínek. Mám dlouhý životopis a teď bych řekla, že je dobře, že si toto pamatuju, protože mi to taky dává sílu pracovat na této agendě.