Hungarian Parliament rejects "pressurising" of German and Dutch Parliament in declaration

After the Hungarian Parliament voted on it on Wednesday, it was published in the Hungarian Gazette on Thursday: at the suggestion of Fidesz, a political declaration rejects the recent pressure exerted by the German and Dutch parliaments.

The two countries' state legislatures had called on their governments

to only agree to the release of withheld EU funds owed to Hungary if the Hungarian government took "verifiable and irreversible steps toward strengthening the rule of law and preventing fraud".

Dutch MPs also called on their government to push for Hungary to join the European Public Prosecutor's Office.

The message and statement published in the Hungarian Gazette on Thursday evening claims this was blackmail, and the German and Dutch parliaments want to interfere in the lives of the Hungarian people – which the Hungarian government rejects.

According to the statement, "Hungary is committed to the values on which the European Union is founded and to the protection of its financial interests", and has made seventeen commitments in recent months in order to reach an agreement with the European Commission.

"The Hungarian Parliament regrets that the parliamentary majority of certain member states, ignoring the mutual respect that follows from the principle of loyal cooperation and leaving the regulated framework of EU negotiations between specific actors, is resorting to political pressure", the declaration reads. It further says that

this behavior violates Hungary's sovereignty and the EU Statute which forbids members of the European Commission from receiving instructions from member state institutions or other bodies.

However, this is a major distortion, since the parliaments of the two countries are not instructing the European Commission, but have called on their own governments to act in their resolution.

"Just as the Hungarian Parliament does not interfere in the lives of the German and Dutch people, we expect the same from the legislatures and other institutions of the two countries. Standing on the basis of mutual respect, we reject any attempt by Germany and the Netherlands to impose their contrary will on the Hungarian people," the declaration asserts.

The political declaration just adopted has no actual legal significance. Last Thursday, the European Commission recommended to the European Council to suspend some €7.5 billion (roughly 3,000 billion forints) in catch-up funding for Hungary because the state of the rule of law in Hungary poses a risk to the use of EU funds.