EU takes Hungary to task over death penalty debate
Viktor Orban - Photo EU Council
(STRASBOURG) - The EU took member state Hungary to task Wednesday after its premier said it should debate reintroducing the death penalty, banned in the 28-nation bloc as a condition of entry.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called Tuesday for a rethink, saying existing penalties for serious crime were much too soft.
Orban's comments sparked a sharp response after a series of spats with Brussels over his hardline stance on human rights and civil society norms, key values for the European Union.
A European Commission spokesman said the "abolition of the death penalty is a condition, a requirement to join the EU."
"I really don't like to assume or speculate," the spokesman added when asked what could happen if it was reintroduced in Hungary.
An EU source said separately that if Orban does get the death penalty reintroduced then the bloc "might suspend certain rights for Hungary, such as the right to vote in the European Council", which groups the leaders of the bloc.
"Everyone is now mobilised against Orban (on this) so it is not going to happen," said the source, who asked not to be identified.
EU Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told the European Parliament in Luxembourg that the death penalty was "never the answer".
Parliament head Martin Schulz said he had been in contact with Orban to discuss the issue as MEPs -- already angered by Tuesday's execution of several foreign drug traffickers in Indonesia -- pressed for an answer.
Orban's call Tuesday for a debate on the death penalty followed remarks last week when he described the EU stand on immigration as "stupid" just after hundreds of migrants seeking to get to Europe died in the Mediterranean.
The right-wing Orban, premier for five years, has been losing ground recently to the extreme-right Jobbik party which supports the death penalty and is strongly anti-immigration.
Hungary abolished capital punishment after the end of communism in 1990 and under EU protocols -- it joined the bloc in 2004 -- cannot bring it back.