Justice Minister Judit Varga has said it is "outrageous" that the European Commission allowed itself to be "directly and indirectly influenced" by the Hungarian opposition and George Soros's Open Society Foundations.
During a break in a meeting of EU affairs ministers in Luxembourg, the minister told MTI that the EC’s rule of law report has again been proven to be “nothing more than a tool to exert political pressure”.
Minister Varga said the fact that Germany, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, had brought the rule of law report before the General Affairs Council “also gave cause for concern from a legal point of view”.
The minister noted that lacking consensus, the member states last year disapproved a proposal to bring the report before the council. Minister Varga said it was also disappointing that the German presidency had rejected her proposal to make the debate on the report public. She said the report must not serve as a basis for any form of dialogue on the rule of law within the EU.
In regards to a forthcoming debate on climate protection week, Minister Varga said that before the EU sets any more ambitious goals in this area, it should assess the extent to which member states had fulfilled their prior commitments. Hungary proposes that before the EU sets any new targets, all member states should meet the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions overall by 40 percent by 2030, she said.
Photo credit: Magyar Nemzet