The government’s information center (KTK) issued a statement on Wednesday in response to remarks made by Vera Jourová, Vice-President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, while presenting in Brussels the EC’s 2023 rule of law report including all 27 EU member states. Jourová said despite positive developments “more work needs to be done” to improve the situation regarding the independence of the judiciary, corruption and the media.
“Brussels keeps pressuring Hungary” as it transpires from its fresh report, “a new attack” on the country despite its fulfilment of every recommendation and continued dialogue with the European Commission, KTK said in the statement. “Hungary is being attacked because we refuse to join the pro-war camp,” KTK said. The Hungarian government does not want “migrant ghettos” to be set up and refuses plans aimed at scrapping the utility price cut scheme. The government in addition has the courage to ask the European Commission the question “where is the pile of money that has been given to Ukraine?”. In a statement, Balázs Hidvéghi, an MEP of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz, said the European Commission should focus on “rule of law problems around the EU institutions, primarily the largest internal corruption scandal of Brussels” rather than “lecture” member states. He said that the commission’s rule of law reports in recent years “have proven discredited”. The latest report Hidvéghi said applied double standards “because it was based on false statements by pseudo-civil organisations” rendering it “unsuitable to present an unbiased picture of the rule of law situation in member states”.