Thursday

23rd Mar 2023

Hungary to pay EU fines via new tax on own citizens

  • Hungarian leader Orban is also being scrutinised by his own centre-right EPP group in the European Parliament (Photo: consilium.europa.eu)

Hungarian authorities will pass on the cost of EU fines through a tax on its own citizens whenever it breaches EU law.

Giving details of the new Hungarian initiative, EU justice commissioner for justice Vivian Reding told euro-deputies at the Strasbourg plenary session on Wednesday (17 April) that: “in practice citizens would be penalised twice: once for not having had their rights under EU law upheld and a second time for having to pay for this."

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The so-called ad hoc tax was introduced into Hungary’s latest constitutional reform in March, its fourth in the past 15 months.

The latest changes are said to undermine the rule of law by limiting the power of the constitutional court.

Hungary denies the charge.

But the commission wants it to repeal rules that entitle the president of a judicial administrative body to decide where cases should be tried, to repeal the ad-hoc EU fine tax, and to scrap restrictions placed on political adverts during election cycles.

The Venice Commission - an expert body composed of former constitutional judges in the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe - and the European Parliament are also drafting separate reports on Hungary, both of which are due by the EU assembly's June plenary

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in a letter addressed to commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso on 12 April said they will review the two issues but did not comment on the ad-hoc tax.

For her part, Reding noted that she has drafted a bundle of infringement letters against Hungary but that she is waiting for Orban's response on the ad-hoc tax issue - due by May - before sending them out as a single package.

“We will not wait until June before we come out with … infringement proceedings,” she said.

The constitutional changes, among others, were pushed through a parliament which is dominated by Orban’s centre-right Fidesz party.

The two-thirds Fidesz majority has made the Hungarian assembly dance to its tune since 2010, with civil liberty groups saying the Orban government is abusing its position of power to entrench its power and conservative values.

Outspoken critic, Belgian liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt, told fellow MEPs the commission should remove Hungary’s voting rights in the council under a never-before-used rule for countries said to breach EU values.

“The commission should launch the procedure without delay, or else we in the parliament should have the courage to do it ourselves,” he said.

Meanwhile, the threat of a commission fine on Hungary is looming as Budapest has yet to implement in practice a November decision by the EU court in Luxembourg to reinstate judges who were forced into early retirement.

The outstanding issue dates back to another set of two infringement procedures launched against Hungary last year.

Reding in late March asked Hungary’s justice minister to detail the number of judges who have been reinstated.

The Hungarian justice minister replied in April but gave only figures of how many judges and prosecutors have been affected, not reinstated.

Hungary had until 6 January to implement the court’s decision on the judges but missed the deadline by about three months.

While the rules have since been amended, a handful of Hungarian judges informed the commission last week they have yet to be reinstated.

“Here we can launch an infringement as well which could lead to immediate fines,” an EU official close to the issue told this website.

Under Hungary's new law, the fine, if imposed, would be the first to be passed on to the Hungarian tax payer.

German politicians outraged at Orban's Nazi jibe

German politicians from across the political spectrum have expressed their outrage after Hungary's Viktor Orban compared Angela Merkel's policies to the Nazi invasion ordered by Adolf Hitler.

Response to Hungary is test for EU

Faced with a deteriorating situation on human rights and democracy in Hungary, Brussels has failed to show the necessary resolve.

Exclusive

Sweden waters down EU press-freedom law

Press-freedom groups from Paris to New York have voiced dismay at Sweden's proposal to weaken a landmark EU law against corporate and political bullies.

Opinion

Why can't we stop marches glorifying Nazism on EU streets?

Every year, neo-Nazis come together to pay tribute to Nazi war criminals and their collaborators, from Benito Mussolini to Rudolf Hess, Ante Pavelić, Hristo Lukov, and of course Adolf Hitler, in events that have become rituals on the extreme-right calendar.

Latest News

  1. EU leaders agree 1m artillery shells for Ukraine
  2. Polish abortion rights activist vows to appeal case
  3. How German business interests have shaped EU climate agenda
  4. The EU-Turkey migration deal is dead on arrival at this summit
  5. Sweden worried by EU visa-free deal with Venezuela
  6. Spain denies any responsibility in Melilla migrant deaths
  7. How much can we trust Russian opinion polls on the war?
  8. Banning PFAS 'forever chemicals' may take forever in Brussels

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality
  5. Promote UkraineInvitation to the National Demonstration in solidarity with Ukraine on 25.02.2023
  6. Azerbaijan Embassy9th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and 1st Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us