Report leaked: Fight against corruption failed in Hungary, new recommendations from Brussels

The European Commission’s draft Rule of Law Report provides a comprehensive assessment of the democratic systems in the Member States. Hungary is highlighted in most of the main chapters for the shortcomings or malfunctions of its domestic legal system. The document will be officially published on Wednesday, but it was leaked on Tuesday.

The draft report notes some positive developments in Hungary, but raises many more concerns. The main problems are with the judiciary, anti-corruption, lobbying or legal practices that violate the single market.

Draft of the Rule of Law Report

Today, the European Commission (EC) is expected to adopt its annual assessment of the state of the rule of law, Népszava reports. It will assess the independence of the judiciary, the effectiveness of measures against corruption, media pluralism and freedom, and independent institutions to ensure checks and balances in all Member States. As last year, it makes recommendations to address these concerns.

Hungary implemented some reforms…

In the summary of the report on Hungary, the Commission acknowledges that Hungary has implemented a number of reforms recommended in its assessment last year. The vast majority of these relate to judicial reform and the fight against corruption.

Among the reforms implemented, it mentions the strengthening of the role of the National Judicial Council, the adaptation of the rules on the Curia and the President of the Curia, the creation of the Integrity Authority, and the regulation to ensure better oversight of the spending of EU funds.

…but concerns remain

However, the EC notes that despite this, investigations and prosecutions of high-level corruption cases are not sufficiently effective. It notes that the practical impact of the new rules on public consultations, also adopted under EU pressure, has yet to be assessed.

According to the draft report, there are still major concerns about press freedom. The media regulator and the independence of the public service media are still to be established. On top of that, the transparent allocation of public advertising to the media is still to be ensured.

The failure of public authorities to enforce European court judgments remains a cause for concern, says the report. It also points out that civil society organisations remain under pressure and that their public funding is not transparent.

Set of new recommendations from Brussels

The Commission is again making recommendations to the Hungarian authorities to address these concerns. The EC proposes to make the system of allocation of cases in lower courts more transparent, as it is not always based on objective, pre-defined criteria. It calls for comprehensive reforms on lobbying and effective oversight of asset declarations.

It makes a number of recommendations to guarantee media freedom, including the introduction of mechanisms to ensure the operational independence of the media authority. Another recommendation concerns the strengthening of independent management and editorial independence of public service media. On top of that, they call for the fair and transparent allocation of advertising spending by state-owned companies.

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