In view of the unnecessary and discriminative practice of setting short deadlines that it practices in a conceptual manner with relating to Hungary, the Hungarian Government will not be responding to the EC opinion issued with relation to the infringement proceedings concerning the transparency of civil organisations within the shorter than average deadline set by the European Commission.
The infringement proceedings launched in July 2017 with relation to whether Act LXXVI of 2017 on the Transparency of Organisations Receiving Foreign Funds (the NGO Act) is consistent with EU law entered a new phase on 4 October 2017 when the Government received the European Commission’s official opinion on the issue, including justifications. In the document, instead of the usual two-month deadline that corresponds to usual practice, the Commission has once again given Hungary only one month to draw up an official response, which according to the Commission’s request should therefore be provided by 5 November 2017.
This is the seventh time in five months that the Commission has set out a deadline of one month or less, of four or two weeks, as a result of which Hungarian responses have had to be formulated parallel to one another within an unreasonably short deadline in the case of three particularly important infringement procedures (on the mandatory resettlement quota, the transparency of civil organisations and the amendment of the Act on Higher Education).
Taking into account the principle of loyal cooperation and in the hope of the success of constructive dialogue, Hungary has so far spared no resources to ensure that is keeps to these extremely short deadlines for providing responses on every occasion. In each case it has request an extension of the deadline from the Commission, which in every case the Commission has summarily rejected without providing tangible justification.
According to our standpoint this represents the arbitrary application of pressure, which clearly violates Hungary’s right to fair procedure and defence.
In view of the above, the Hungarian Government has decided to provide its official response to the Commission’s opinion and justifications within the two-month deadline that corresponds to decades of practice, i.e. by 5 December 2017, which scheduling provides enough time to prepare and finalise Hungary’s letter of reply according to the usual order of procedure. Hungary is committed to continuing dialogue, but expects its right to defence not to be impaired.