European Parliament to debate on Hungary again
May 8th, 2020Opinions diverge on the decision by the European Parliament to discuss Hungary’s ‘coronavirus legislation’.
In Népszava, Gábor Horváth is sceptical about the chances of the European Parliament achieving anything with yet another debate with MEPs finding the Hungarian government guilty of rule of law infringements. After Socialist MEP Tavares, then Dutch Green MEP Sargentini, now it will be the task of French Green MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield to submit a report for discussion. But Europe, Horváth writes, is a giant snake that has no teeth. The only ones that have ‘biting power’, the members of the European Council, the Presidents and prime Ministers of the member countries prefer not to take action fearing that one day it could be their turn. Horváth nevertheless commends the European Parliament for ‘putting our misery on the agenda, at least’.
In her report on the announcement in Magyar Nemzet, Tamara Judi points out that this time the European Parliament will only discuss a report by the French Green MEP without however issuing a resolution which would have to be addressed by the Commission or the European Council. She quotes Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield as finding it incomprehensible that EU legal experts found Hungary’s coronavirus legislation in harmony with Union law.
In an OpEd piece in the pro-government daily, László Szőcs remarks that France has lost over 25 thousand people to the coronavirus thus far, Belgium’s victims number more than 8 thousand, while Hungary’ mourns just under 400 victims of the pandemic. Under such conditions, he finds it absurd for the French MEP to challenge the opinions of the lawyers of the European Commission on the regulations introduced in Hungary to combat the pandemic.