German MEP: Orbán should excluded from the next EC meeting
German Green MEP Daniel Freund has sent an open letter to the President of the European Council demanding that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban should not attend the European Council.
Open letter to the President of the European Council
Daniel Freund, a German Green Party member in the European Parliament, has written an open letter to the President of the European Council. In his letter, he makes a request to President Charles Michel. Freund is concerned that
Viktor Orbán will be able to attend the European Council meeting of the EU Heads of State and Government.
Freund argues that, according to Article 10 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, only governments that are democratically accountable to their national parliaments and citizens can represent themselves in the Council.
According to the German politician, Hungary is no longer democratic.
Freund backs up his opinion with several reports. For instance, he cites reports by Freedom House and the OSCE. Freund also mentions on his Twitter page the state of war declared in Hungary on Tuesday. This means that Orbán and the Hungarian government can continue to govern by decree, writes nyugatifeny.hu.
The European Council meets on 30-31 May
The next European Council meeting will be held on 30-31 May, next week. Daniel Freund concludes his letter that it would not be advisable to invite Hungary to the next European Council.
The next European Council will discuss crucially important issues regarding the security of the European Union.
For this reason, it would not be safe if the head of state of a government that is not democratically accountable attended the meeting. The European Council will likely discuss the next package of sanctions against Russia at the meeting next week. This will also bring up the issue of the oil embargo, magyarnarancs.hu reports. Hungary has a different position on the oil embargo than most EU member states. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had earlier asked Charles Michel not to include the oil embargo in the agenda for the time being.
Read alsoGerman MEP: Orbán should excluded from the next EC meeting
Source: magyarnarancs.hu, nyugatifeny.hu