It is not true that the European Commission’s rule of law report evaluates Member States based on objective criteria, the Justice Minister stated on her Facebook account on Friday.

According to Judit Varga, the report is more of a manual about how to apply double standards. “Both beginners and advanced learners will find it an inspirational read,” the Minister observed, gathering together some inspirational ideas after studying the reports introducing the greatest friends of the rule of law (the Benelux countries and the Northern states).

She pointed out that the report relating to Hungary makes reference to the annual report of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF); at the same time, the Commission did not deem this necessary in the case of Belgium. Had it done so, this would have revealed that between 2014 and 2018 in the case of Belgium there had been twice as many investigations resulting in recommendations than in the case of Hungary, Ms. Varga stressed.

Only the Hungarian report makes references to the European Semester’s country-specific recommendations, despite the fact that these recommendations call for the effective supervision of the anti-money laundering framework in the case of Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg and Sweden as well.

She also said the report on Hungary covers the pay of judges at length, and “manages” to present even a three-year pay rise programme in a negative light. The reports of the Benelux and Northern states discuss an evident shortage of funds experienced by courts; yet, the Commission does not find this problematic.

Ms. Varga further highlighted that the Commission is “very concerned” about the state of media pluralism in Hungary. According to the Media Pluralism Monitor – which is frequently cited in Hungary’s case – in Finland the pluralism of the media market is exposed to a high level of risk. Naturally, this is not mentioned in Finland’s rule of law report, the Minister observed, adding in conclusion that “these were only a few introductory samples, further ones will follow soon – this time, for advanced learners”.

(Ministry of Justice/MTI)