Enikő Győri, Minister of State in charge of EU affairs, stated that the report prepared by European Parliament Rapporteur Rui Tavares was without precedent within the European Union. The Hungarian Minister of State pointed out that the report - which was strongly critical of the state of the rule of law in Hungary - concerns issues that fall within the scope of national competence.

The recommendations articulated in the report do not fall within the jurisdiction of the European Union, Enikő Győri emphasises. As she said, the MEP “who began his career in the Communist party”, but is currently a member of the Green Party, “thinks that all the actions performed by a democratically elected Parliament and Government during the past three years should be reversed”.

Minister of State Győri said that the Hungarian Government will refute in detail “every single factual error and distortion” contained within the draft report, one by one.

She revealed that she thought the document which, as she said, contained factual errors and distortions, and spoke about trends without actually supporting these claims with facts and arguments, was strongly politically motivated. She also said it was regrettable that the opinion of the Hungarian Government – sent to the author of the report – was not reflected in the report.

The Hungarian Minister of State pointed out that European Parliament elections were going to be held a year from now and the European parties of the left are trying to demonstrate that the European People’s Party is not ready to protect basic European values “for example, against the Hungarian Government”.

Speaking about her official visit to the Baltic region, Enikő Győri said that she asked her hosts not to be a partner in allowing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (CoE) to initiate a monitoring procedure against Hungary, as proposed by the relevant CoE committee. The Parliamentary Assembly, comprising 318 members of parliament from the 47 member states, is to decide on the proposal in June.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)