Hungary amends justice law after EU threats
Photo © James Steidl - Fotolia
(BUDAPEST) - Hungary's government submitted Tuesday an amendment to its controversial new law on the judiciary after the European Commission threatened legal action.
On March 7, the European executive had given Hungary one month to bring two controversial laws -- on its judicial system and its data protection authority -- in line with EU principles or face court action.
It said Budapest's bid to secure 15-20 billion euros from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union would depend on Hungary proving its commitment to democratic principles enshrined in EU treaties.
"We must expand oversight over the work of the president of the National Judicial Office," Robert Repassy, a deputy of the ruling centre-right Fidesz party, said Tuesday during the parliamentary debate following the proposal.
"The main goal of the amendment is to broaden oversight of the NJO, in line with the proposals from the Venice Commission and the national judges' association," he said.
Last week, the Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe, slammed Hungary for handing sweeping powers to the president of the newly-established NJO, a close family friend of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The newly created post has a mandate of nine years.
Rights groups and the opposition had spoken out against Tunde Hando's nomination in December as the head of the NJO.
The Council of Europe's secretary-general Thorbjorn Jagland also criticised that in the judiciary and in the media in Hungary, "too much power is given to a body or a person which is not accountable to anybody."
Following the EU's threats of legal action, Budapest submitted an amendment to its law on the data protection agency on March 9.
Hungary came in for severe criticism at the start of the year as a new constitution came into force with a raft of accompanying laws that critics said would curb the independence of its central bank and judiciary.