Thursday’s dismissal by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) of Hungary’s action against a European Parliament resolution triggering an Article 7 procedure is controversial in many ways and the recent “political games” of the European left in Brussels raise issues of legal certainty, the justice minister told daily Magyar Nemzet.
The EP approved a resolution based on a critical report on Hungary by MEP Judith Sargentini in the autumn of 2018. The two-thirds majority support required for approving the resolution and activating an Article 7 procedure was achieved because abstentions were not taken into consideration when the votes were counted. The Hungarian government launched an action against this at the CJEU, citing an irregularity in the procedural rules when counting the votes. Judit Varga told the paper in an interview published on Friday that the EP now considering a procedure against the European Commission because it failed to apply rule of law regulations contested by Hungary and Poland reflected a “typical Brussels power feud”.
“The question is who’s in charge: the member states or the European Parliament? The answer is obvious: the European Parliament did not even play a role in the political agreement made in December because the treaties do not give the EP such legitimacy,” she said. “Still, the left-liberal MEPs now threaten the commission, which did have a role in the deal.” Varga said the EP had requested an accelerated procedure from the CJEU in this latter case. It took nearly three years for the court to issue a ruling connected to the Sargentini report, yet MEPs now urge faster proceedings in the rule of law case which was filed less than six months ago, she added.
“Let’s compare the two matters against each other. They want an accelerated procedure in a case which is one of the most complex legal matters in the history of the European Union but we have been waiting for three years in a simple issue concerning the procedural rules. Where is legal certainty?” she said. If the EP is given more powers in the future, in line with the demands of the European left and Hungarian opposition MEPs, it will abuse these rights in a similar fashion, she added.
hungarymatters.hu
