The EU council hearing concerning the state of the rule of law in Hungary is a procedure comprised of questions controlled from outside. During the Tuesday session, it was finally ascertained that certain interest groups are seeking to divide unity among Member States, Justice Minister Judit Varga said in Brussels on Tuesday.

After the hearing held in the General Affairs Council regarding the procedure that was instituted against Hungary under Article 7, at a joint press conference with Minister for Innovation and Technology László Palkovics and Zoltán Kovács, Minister of State for International Communication and Relations at the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister, talking to Hungarian journalists, Mrs Varga said Europe has been divided into good and bad Member States. Certain forces want to punish the countries which say no to the position echoed by the “European mainstream”.

We now know for a fact that if the EU were truly concerned about the rule of law, this procedure could have been concluded a long time ago as the Hungarian delegation provided exhaustive answers to all questions, the Minister stressed.

She also said the number of those asking questions at the hearing shows that there is less and less interest in the politically motivated procedure that can be best described as a witch-hunt.

As the procedure makes no sense, at the hearing she suggested to her colleagues that they return to the earlier proposal made by Belgium and Germany, recommending inter-governmental consultations based on the foundations of mutual respect in the case of all concerns related to the rule of law.

Hungary rejects the lecturing style of the discussions. In any procedure, we can only conduct debates among nations that mutually respect one another, the Justice Minister underlined.

At the press conference, Mr Palkovics stressed that at the hearing no one was interested either in Hungarian higher education, or in research activities in Hungary. In his words, this proves that “we are witnessing a legal procedure”.

The questions raised from time to time are not conducive to making any progress in the discussions, and therefore a decision should be made sooner or later whether there is any point in dealing with the matter at all, he said.

Those who earlier raised concerns about academic freedom in Hungary no longer ask such questions as they have been able to see for themselves that it is not in any danger. If there was trust regarding this matter among Member States and if their dialogue was not based on reports or fake news published in the press, we could make some progress, but based on the hearing no one seems to be interested in that, the Minister added.

At the press conference, Mr Kovács said at the hearing it became evident that under the leadership of Executive Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, George Soros’s people are present in the new European Commission as well.

He described the hearing as “a completely pointless discussion leading nowhere” as, by his account, those who asked questions were not interested in the facts, or in the circumstances under which Hungary is governed.

Regarding “the never-ending procedure that is turning into a farce”, Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders made it clear at the hearing that they have no intention of bringing it to a conclusion, he said.

The Minister of State said it is also abundantly clear that behind the questions asked equally by the European Commission, EU Member States and Finland currently holding the EU Presidency, one can see “sheet music pre-composed by Soros-affiliated NGOs”. They are trying to measure Hungary against a benchmark that does not exist anywhere in Europe. As expectations keep changing, it is impossible to conduct a meaningful dialogue, Mr Kovács added.

(MTI)