Economy
Hungary shows flexibility on laws as EU pressure mounts
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An EU source told AFP that Hungary can expect three warning letters that should be sent early next week.
“The pressure is starting to work, at least on the level of the Hungarian government," the source said, adding that the cabinet is ready to consider the EU executive’s requests in a bid to avoid infringement proceedings.Hungary is ready to change legislation should it be required by the European Commission, said Foreign Minister János Martonyi in a letter sent to his fellow ministers on 6 January. "This has never been and will not be a matter of prestige" for the cabinet, he added.
“As guardian of the Treaties, the Commission remains preoccupied that a number of the new provisions may violate EU law. The Commission received the adopted texts of the cardinal laws from the Hungarian authorities ten days ago. Work to analyse the final versions of the laws and their compatibility with EU law began immediately, and the Commission is now in the final stage of this analysis," the EC said in a statement on Wednesday.
Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission, warned Hungary yesterday against abusing its legislative majority.
“[...] as the Court of Justice has repeatedly said: a dominant position brings with it a special responsibility. It must not be abused. This is the same principle that we expect from the Hungarian government. It should make use of its two-thirds majority in a responsible manner, and always fully in line with EU law."
The criticised laws
Without prejudging the final outcome of this analysis, the Commission is “committed to fully use all its powers to analyse the compatibility of national law with EU law and reserves the right to take any steps that it deems appropriate, namely the possibility of launching infringement procedures pursuant to Article 258 of the Treaty."
Concerns relate to a number of issues, including
Decisions due next week
The Commission services will finalise their legal analysis in the next days. “This will allow the College, based on a sound legal assessment, to take appropriate decisions at its next meeting on 17 January," the EC said.
“The Commission stands ready to make full use of its prerogatives to ensure that Member States respect the obligations they have accepted as Members of the European Union."
"We will use all our powers to make sure that Hungary complies with the principles and values and the rules of the European Union," EC President Barroso said today.
“More generally, the Commission recalls that a legally stable environment, based on the rule of law, including respect of media freedom, democratic principles and fundamental rights, is also the best guarantee for citizens' trust and confidence of partners and investors. This is particularly vital in times of economic crisis. The swiftest way to lay to rest the concerns mentioned would of course be action by the Hungarian authorities themselves."
No action until EC meeting
Parliament may amend all three objected laws, but it will not withdraw any of these, government sources told local news portal index.hu on Thursday. But the cabinet will certainly wait until next week as it wants to see the exact chapters the Commission is objecting to.
The source said the government will not make a move until at least the next EC meeting, because the infringement proceedings are not certain to be launched against the country immediately.
The source said that there have only been opinions heard in the objected matters and the government will decide what to do with the objected laws only in view of the specific arguments.
Hungary is waiting for arguments and not political opinion from the European Union on disputed laws and when these arguments are convincing, the cabinet will be ready to consider amending the legislation, Reuters cited Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as saying on Thursday.
The problems in detail (Excerpts from the annex to a letter by Reding to Hungary’s Justice Minister and Deputy PM Tibor Navracsics on 12 December 2011.)
According to the Commission's understanding, under the new Constitution, no judge may serve who is older than the general retirement age. At present, the mandatory retirement age for judges in Hungary is 70 years.
The general retirement age, which is not mandatory but allows workers/employees (including judges) to retire with a pension, is 62 years (but will be raised to 65 between 2014 and 2022). The mandatory retirement age for judges is therefore lowered by eight years, from currently 70 years to (de facto) 62 years, with very short transitional periods (6 months to 1 year).
According to Directive 2000/78/EC, discrimination on grounds of age is generally prohibited, but can be objectively justified by a legitimate aim, if the means of achieving that aim are appropriate and necessary.
According to the Constitution and the adopted legislation on the organisation of the courts, the National Judicial Council was abolished and replaced by a National Judicial Office and a National Council of Judges as of 1 January 2012.
The Commission understands that the President of the new National Judicial Office will have sole competence as regards operational administrative management of the court system, including the power to appoint all judges. The National Council of Judges appears to be a consultative body to the President of the National Judicial Office. It appears therefore that there is a concentration of power in the person of the President of the National Judicial Office.
National judicial systems must enable citizens to fully enjoy the rights under EU law and the independence of the judiciary is necessary to uphold these rights. Insufficient guarantees of judicial independence could negatively impact on the application of EU law and the right to an effective remedy before a tribunal as enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The Commission understands that there is no legislation relating to the transition from the current Supreme Court to the future 'Curia'. The concrete impact on this transformation is not clear, in particular as regards the judges of the current Supreme Court. As for the President of the Supreme Court, the old Constitution has been amended in order to provide that the President of the Curia has to be elected by 31 December 2011 at the latest. This means that the current mandate of the President of Hungarian Supreme Court will expire by that date, before the end of the regular term.
According to the Commission's understanding, the new Hungarian data protection legislation will bring about a restructuring of the Hungarian Data Protection Authority. A National Agency for Data Protection and Freedom of Information will replace the Data Protection Commissioner's Office as of 1.1.2012. Thereby prematurely an end will be put to the six year term of the Data Protection Commissioner currently in office, who was appointed in 2008.
According to the legislation, the new Data Protection authority is independent and is headed by a President who is nominated by the Prime Minister and appointed by the President of Hungary for a period of nine years. His assignment shall end only if certain conditions are fulfilled.
The current EU data protection legislation in force, Directive 95/46/EC, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union require that the data protection supervisory authorities in the Member States act in complete independence.
“The pressure is starting to work, at least on the level of the Hungarian government," the source said, adding that the cabinet is ready to consider the EU executive’s requests in a bid to avoid infringement proceedings.Hungary is ready to change legislation should it be required by the European Commission, said Foreign Minister János Martonyi in a letter sent to his fellow ministers on 6 January. "This has never been and will not be a matter of prestige" for the cabinet, he added.
“As guardian of the Treaties, the Commission remains preoccupied that a number of the new provisions may violate EU law. The Commission received the adopted texts of the cardinal laws from the Hungarian authorities ten days ago. Work to analyse the final versions of the laws and their compatibility with EU law began immediately, and the Commission is now in the final stage of this analysis," the EC said in a statement on Wednesday.
Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission, warned Hungary yesterday against abusing its legislative majority.
“[...] as the Court of Justice has repeatedly said: a dominant position brings with it a special responsibility. It must not be abused. This is the same principle that we expect from the Hungarian government. It should make use of its two-thirds majority in a responsible manner, and always fully in line with EU law."
The criticised laws
Without prejudging the final outcome of this analysis, the Commission is “committed to fully use all its powers to analyse the compatibility of national law with EU law and reserves the right to take any steps that it deems appropriate, namely the possibility of launching infringement procedures pursuant to Article 258 of the Treaty."
Concerns relate to a number of issues, including
- the independence of the national central bank;
- measures concerning the judiciary and in particular mandatory early retirement of judges and prosecutors at the age of 62 instead of 70;
- the independence of the national data protection authority.
Decisions due next week
The Commission services will finalise their legal analysis in the next days. “This will allow the College, based on a sound legal assessment, to take appropriate decisions at its next meeting on 17 January," the EC said.
“The Commission stands ready to make full use of its prerogatives to ensure that Member States respect the obligations they have accepted as Members of the European Union."
"We will use all our powers to make sure that Hungary complies with the principles and values and the rules of the European Union," EC President Barroso said today.
“More generally, the Commission recalls that a legally stable environment, based on the rule of law, including respect of media freedom, democratic principles and fundamental rights, is also the best guarantee for citizens' trust and confidence of partners and investors. This is particularly vital in times of economic crisis. The swiftest way to lay to rest the concerns mentioned would of course be action by the Hungarian authorities themselves."
No action until EC meeting
Parliament may amend all three objected laws, but it will not withdraw any of these, government sources told local news portal index.hu on Thursday. But the cabinet will certainly wait until next week as it wants to see the exact chapters the Commission is objecting to.
The source said the government will not make a move until at least the next EC meeting, because the infringement proceedings are not certain to be launched against the country immediately.
The source said that there have only been opinions heard in the objected matters and the government will decide what to do with the objected laws only in view of the specific arguments.
Hungary is waiting for arguments and not political opinion from the European Union on disputed laws and when these arguments are convincing, the cabinet will be ready to consider amending the legislation, Reuters cited Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as saying on Thursday.
The problems in detail (Excerpts from the annex to a letter by Reding to Hungary’s Justice Minister and Deputy PM Tibor Navracsics on 12 December 2011.)
According to the Commission's understanding, under the new Constitution, no judge may serve who is older than the general retirement age. At present, the mandatory retirement age for judges in Hungary is 70 years.
The general retirement age, which is not mandatory but allows workers/employees (including judges) to retire with a pension, is 62 years (but will be raised to 65 between 2014 and 2022). The mandatory retirement age for judges is therefore lowered by eight years, from currently 70 years to (de facto) 62 years, with very short transitional periods (6 months to 1 year).
According to Directive 2000/78/EC, discrimination on grounds of age is generally prohibited, but can be objectively justified by a legitimate aim, if the means of achieving that aim are appropriate and necessary.
According to the Constitution and the adopted legislation on the organisation of the courts, the National Judicial Council was abolished and replaced by a National Judicial Office and a National Council of Judges as of 1 January 2012.
The Commission understands that the President of the new National Judicial Office will have sole competence as regards operational administrative management of the court system, including the power to appoint all judges. The National Council of Judges appears to be a consultative body to the President of the National Judicial Office. It appears therefore that there is a concentration of power in the person of the President of the National Judicial Office.
National judicial systems must enable citizens to fully enjoy the rights under EU law and the independence of the judiciary is necessary to uphold these rights. Insufficient guarantees of judicial independence could negatively impact on the application of EU law and the right to an effective remedy before a tribunal as enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The Commission understands that there is no legislation relating to the transition from the current Supreme Court to the future 'Curia'. The concrete impact on this transformation is not clear, in particular as regards the judges of the current Supreme Court. As for the President of the Supreme Court, the old Constitution has been amended in order to provide that the President of the Curia has to be elected by 31 December 2011 at the latest. This means that the current mandate of the President of Hungarian Supreme Court will expire by that date, before the end of the regular term.
According to the Commission's understanding, the new Hungarian data protection legislation will bring about a restructuring of the Hungarian Data Protection Authority. A National Agency for Data Protection and Freedom of Information will replace the Data Protection Commissioner's Office as of 1.1.2012. Thereby prematurely an end will be put to the six year term of the Data Protection Commissioner currently in office, who was appointed in 2008.
According to the legislation, the new Data Protection authority is independent and is headed by a President who is nominated by the Prime Minister and appointed by the President of Hungary for a period of nine years. His assignment shall end only if certain conditions are fulfilled.
The current EU data protection legislation in force, Directive 95/46/EC, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union require that the data protection supervisory authorities in the Member States act in complete independence.
