European Commission to take case of Hungary’s Sovereignty Protection Act to court, Népszava reports

The European Commission is planning to move the infringement proceedings launched over Hungary's Sovereignty Protection Act forward, Népszava has learned from several sources.

The EU body launched the proceedings in February as it sees the law as violating several provisions of primary and secondary EU law, including:

• EU democratic values;
• the principle of democracy and the right of EU citizens to vote;
• a number of fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (such as the right to the respect of private and family life, the right to the protection of personal data, the freedom of expression and information, the freedom of association, the right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial, the prohibition of self-incrimination and lawyer-client privilege);
• EU legal standards on the protection of personal data;
• and a number of rules applicable to the internal market.

The Hungarian government was first given two months to make amendments or explain itself, but failed to do so, so the next stage followed in May. According to Népszava, the government has still not managed to provide convincing answers to the European Commission, which is why the procedure will be moved to the judicial stage on Thursday. Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders has recently said that they will not hesitate to move forward if necessary.

Alongside the bad, there are some good news for the government too

The commissioner has previously hinted that, as it was in the case of the conditions for the judicial reform, catch-up funding could also be frozen due to the Sovereignty Protection Act. A source has now told Népszava that the plan has since been abandoned.

The paper also understands that the EU body is not expected to ask for interim measures, i.e. it is not going to request that the Court of Justice of the European Union order the application of the law to be suspended until the ruling. Such lawsuits usually last for a year or two, so in the absence of such an injunction, the law could remain in place for some time without consequences. Moreover, even if the law is found to be in breach of EU law, the European Commission can still request the judges to impose a fine in a separate step.

This is the law that established the Sovereignty Protection Office, which at the end of June launched a comprehensive investigation against the investigative journalism non-profit Átlátszó and the corruption watchdog Transparency International Hungary. The SPO has put press outlets, including Telex, on a list of those deemed "pro-war" according to the government's rhetoric. Articles critical of the government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and raising professional concerns about the Chinese vaccine (imported in large numbers by Hungary), including several published by Telex, were accused of being anti-vaccine and of spreading disinformation.

The SPO had approached government agencies to request that they regularly provide them with information relating to 'sovereignty protection', for example with bank account statements of private individuals. It was later revealed that the Hungarian National Bank (MNB), which was called upon to do this, has no legal authority to do so and does not collect such data at all.