The Commission of Ursula von der Leyen takes a new step in its (so far unsuccessful) fight against the authoritarian drift of the ultra government of Viktor Orban in Hungary, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU this semester. Brussels decided this Thursday to bring before the Luxembourg Court of Justice (CJEU) the so-called “National Sovereignty Protection Law” of Hungary on the grounds that it violates fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and information, privacy, freedom of association, professional secrecy or the presumption of innocence.
Orbán maintains that the objective of this norm, which entered into force on December 23, 2023, aims to combat foreign interference that poses a threat to the sovereignty of Hungary. But NGOs and the opposition denounced It is a tool to silence critical voices. The law creates a Sovereignty Protection Office, with broad investigative powers and a strict system of monitoring and sanctions.
This office has very broad discretionary power during investigations, particularly regarding access to information, and can intervene “intrusively”. The law requires wide publicity about individual investigations and their results, which will have negative consequences for the entities concerned, including “a stigmatizing effect”. The broad powers of the Office will “disproportionately” affect NGOs, media and journalistsaccording to Brussels.
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In February 2024, the community executive sent a letter of formal notice to Hungary, the first phase of an infringement procedure, in which it expressed its concerns. In May 2024, after deeming Orbán’s response unsatisfactory, Brussels sent a reasoned opinion to the Budapest government in which it reiterated that the law violates the fundamental rights enshrined in the European Charter, the fundamental freedoms of the internal market and EU data protection legislation.
In response to this reasoned opinion, Hungary argued that the law on defense of sovereignty does not violate EU law and that the concerns raised were unfounded.
Having carefully assessed the Orbán government’s final response, the Commission maintains the majority of the problems identified, which have not been corrected. Concretely, Brussels confirms that the standard violates several fundamental rights: the right to respect for private and family life, freedom of expression and information, freedom of association, the right to professional secrecy and the presumption of innocence, which implies the right not to incriminate oneself.
The Community Executive also considers that the law violates several fundamental freedoms of the internal market, the directive on electronic commerce, the directive on services and European data protection legislation. For all these reasons, Brussels has decided to denounce Hungary before the CJEU.
This is the last of the fronts that the Von der Leyen Commission has opened against the Orbán government for its authoritarian drift. Last June, the CJEU had already imposed a fine of 200 million euros for violation of European asylum law. The penalty continues to increase at the rate of one million euros per day and Budapest refuses to pay, which is why the Community Executive has started to deduct the amount from the structural funds allocated to Hungary.
