The Hungarian government rejects the Tavares report completely – declared Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister of State in charge European Affairs Enikő Győri in Strasbourg on Wednesday following the European Parliament (EP) vote - with 370 for, 249 against and 82 abstaining - that approved the report on the state of fundamental rights in Hungary, prepared by Portuguese MEP Rui Tavares.

Enikő Győri claimed that parliamentary mathematics prevailed in the vote.  “There is a political campaign underway since European Parliament elections will be held in less than a year. On this occasion, the political Left thought that Hungary would be a perfect target to warm up for the campaign”, said the Hungarian Minister of State.  She stated that, if phenomena like the Tavares report are encouraged in the future, then “we will be destroying the European Union and this is not what we want”.

Enikő Győri recalled that according to the institutional section of the report, a so-called trilateral Copenhagen dialogue mechanism should be established between the EU institutions “to issue a certificate on the level of compliance of Member States”. As she noted, the Treaties do not recognise such a mechanism.

“If we proceed in this direction, we will be institutionalising mutual suspicion”, said Enikő Győri. She also mentioned that according to the report the body – which would be monitoring Hungary – would remain in place along with shadow rapporteurs from the various parties. “Hungary has been selected for the role of guinea pig” – she said, firmly rejecting this idea as well.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)