On Wednesday on her social media account, Justice Minister Judit Varga described the European Commission’s rule of law report as absurd and untrue.
“The European Commission’s 2020 rule of law report released today is absurd and untrue, and so it cannot serve as the basis for any rule of law debate in the European Union,” the Hungarian Minister wrote on Facebook, adding that the concept and methodology of the report are flawed, its sources are unbalanced, and its content is unfounded.
According to Ms. Varga’s evaluation, the effect of the report is arbitrary, and it fails to define a single objective reference value that could be uniformly applicable to all Member States. The selection of the report’s sources is biased and non-transparent, she said.
“It is unacceptable that the report was in actual fact written by organisations which are part of a centrally-financed international network that is conducting a coordinated political campaign against Hungary,” Ms. Varga wrote. She highlighted that the chapter of the report relating to Hungary makes references to 12 civil-society organisations, 11 of which have received financial support in the past few years from the Open Society Foundations linked to George Soros.
The Justice Minister stressed that Hungary is one of the few Member States where there is genuine pluralism in the media, in ideological debates and in public opinion. In contrast to Western European media largely dominated by left-wing and liberal media channels, in Hungary, conservative and Christian democratic views can also reach the public, she added.
Hungary’s Fundamental Law and power structure are based on the rule of law, she continued, and it is the duty of all agencies of the state to protect Hungary’s constitutional identity.
“An objective and impartial analysis of all reliable information relating to the situation in Hungary can only lead to the single conclusion that in Hungary the European Union’s fundamental values are respected, and the principle of the rule of law is enforced,” Ms. Varga stated in summary in her Facebook post.
Introducing the Commission’s first rule of law report on Wednesday in Brussels, Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency Vera Jourová said while in many Member States of the European Union stringent regulations protect the rule of law, the challenges facing the media and freedom of the administration of justice pose serious threats to the observance of democratic norms in a number of countries.