18 Amendments of Lucia ĎURIŠ NICHOLSONOVÁ related to 2018/0902R(NLE)
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G a (new)
Recital G a (new)
Ga. whereas changes brought to the electoral code over the years through constituency reshaping and winner compensation are disadvantaging opposition parties; whereas in response to worries over the fairness of the elections and appeals from civil society, the OSCE decided to send a full-scale international election observation mission for the general elections held 3 April 2022, which is a rare occurrence regarding EU Member States;
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J a (new)
Recital J a (new)
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K
Recital K
K. whereas on 5 April 2022, the Commission President announced that Commissioner for Budget Johannes Hahn had informed the Hungarian authorities about the Commission’s plans to move on to the next step and formally trigger the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation5 , mainly over corruption concerns; whereas on 27 April 2022, the Commission finally started the formal procedure against Hungary under the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation by sending a written notification; _________________ 5 Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2092 of 16 December 2020 on a general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget, OJ L 433 I , 22.12.2020, p. 1.
Amendment 77 #
Ka. whereas on 24th of July 2020 the removal of Hungary’s top independent news portal index.hu editor-in-chief prompted the collective resignation of more than 70 journalists who were denouncing clear interference and governmental pressure on their media outlet; whereas in recent years critical voices have been silenced, most independent outlets have either gone out of business, or have been bought by government allies and received lucrative flows of state advertising;
Amendment 78 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K b (new)
Recital K b (new)
Kb. whereas the consolidation of over 470 media outlets under KESMA (Central European Press and Media Foundation) has had dramatic impacts in terms of shrinking of the space available for independent and opposition media and access to information for the Hungarian citizens; whereas the funds spent for public media and KESMA are essentially used for government propaganda and discrediting the opposition and non- governmental organizations; whereas the manipulation of media ownership, state capture of regulators and formerly independent outlets, government advertising revenue and the granting of licenses are methods by which the media environment can be skewed in favour of the government and are already exported in other parts in Europe;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K c (new)
Recital K c (new)
Kc. whereas according to the study financed by the European Commission conducted by the European federation of Journalists (EFJ), the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) at the European University Institute in Florence, Mapping Media Freedom, released in July 2020, the coronavirus crisis had arguably the biggest effect on media freedom in Hungary; whereas the new legislation against the spreading of “false” or “distorted” information, passed during the state of emergency in Hungary, caused uncertainty and self- censorship among media outlets and actors;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K d (new)
Recital K d (new)
Kd. whereas in July 2021 the investigative portal Direkt36 revealed, based on a leaked database, that about 300 Hungarian citizens - among which journalists, lawyers, politicians, businesspeople critical of the government, former state officials- were targeted by the Pegasus spyware of the Israeli NSO Group between 2018 and 2021; whereas these revelations raised concerns about politically motivated surveillance against Hungarian citizens and the abuse of the NSO spyware;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L a (new)
Recital L a (new)
La. whereas Hungary ranks 69 out of 139 countries in the World Justice Project 2021 Rule of Law Index (down two places compared to the previous year) and occupies the last place (31 out of 31) in the EU, EFTA, and North America region;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L b (new)
Recital L b (new)
Lb. whereas Hungary ranks 73 out of the 180 countries and territories covered by the Transparency International 2021 Corruption Perception Index (down by one place compared to the previous year) and its ranking has been constantly declining since 2012;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L c (new)
Recital L c (new)
Lc. whereas Hungary ranks 85 out of the 180 countries and territories covered by the Reporter without Borders 2022 World Press Freedom Index and is listed in the analysis for the Europe -Central Asia region as one of the countries that have intensified draconian laws against journalists;
Amendment 101 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L d (new)
Recital L d (new)
Ld. whereas there is increasing expert consensus that Hungary is no longer a democracy; whereas according to the University of Gothenburg V-Dem Democracy Index 2019, Hungary became the EU’s first ever authoritarian Member State; whereas Hungary was identified as a “hybrid regime,” having lost its status as a “semi-consolidated democracy” in the 2020 Freedom House Nations in Transit Report; whereas Hungary is rated as a "flawed democracy" and ranks 56 out of 167 countries (one position below its 2020 ranking) in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2022 Democracy Index; whereas according to the V-Dem Democracy Index 2022, among the Union members, Hungary and Poland are among the top autocratizers in the world over the last decade;
Amendment 104 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L e (new)
Recital L e (new)
Le. whereas the Hungarian government continued attacks on academic freedoms; whereas on 31st of August 2020 the management of Hungary’s prestigious University of Theatre and Film Arts (SZFE) resigned in protest over the imposition of a government-appointed board; whereas a law passed by parliament in 2020 had transferred the ownership of the state-run theatre school to a private foundation whose members have close links to the Orban government; whereas the Ministry of Technology and Innovation appointed five members to the new board of trustees, rejecting members proposed by the university’s senate; whereas in recent years the actions of the government aimed at exerting control over academia and sciences in an effort to root out teaching or scientific research that counter the government’s conservative agenda; whereas another example in this regard is stripping the Academy of Sciences of its autonomy through the controversial bill adopted in July 2019; whereas the EU should act more forcefully in order to safeguard the autonomy of universities in Hungary;
Amendment 107 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L f (new)
Recital L f (new)
Lf. whereas two thirds of the 33 public interest asset management foundations performing public duties (KEKVAs) that have been created by the end of 2021 will manage higher education institutions previously run by the state; whereas civil society and Hungarian independent intellectuals have warned against the massive privatisation in the field of higher education and the threat it poses for freedom of research and teaching;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L g (new)
Recital L g (new)
Lg. whereas on 15 June 2021, the Hungarian Parliament adopted a law originally intended to fight paedophilia, which, following amendments proposed by Members from the ruling Fidesz party, contains clauses prohibiting the portrayal of homosexuality and gender- reassignment to minors; whereas the law prohibits homosexuality and gender reassignment from being featured in sex education classes, and stipulates that such classes can now only be taught by registered organisations; whereas changes to the Business Advertising Law and to the Media Law require that adverts and content featuring LGBTI people must be rated as Category V (i.e. not recommended for minors); whereas the association of sexual orientation and gender identity with criminal acts such paedophilia is unacceptable and leads to further discrimination and stigmatisation of sexual minorities;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L h (new)
Recital L h (new)
Lh. whereas civil society, and especially public interest non- governmental organizations (NGOs), have been facing increasing pressure in Hungary; whereas, although the government repealed the bill previously declared incompatible with EU law by the ECJ, according to the new law, these organizations can now be subjected to regular financial inspections by the State Audit Office; whereas civil society organizations are concerned that the Audit Office, whose main function is to monitor the use of public funds, not private donations, will be used to put more pressure on them; whereas civil society organisations have warned that with the new NGO law, the state interferes with the autonomy of association of organisations established on the basis of the right of association, the privacy of citizens who stand up for public interest and that it is detrimental to the exercise of freedom of expression and to the democratic public as a whole;
Amendment 213 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Believes that, taken together, the facts and trends mentioned in Parliament’s resolutions represent a systemic threat to the values of Article 2 TEU and constitute a clear risk of a serious breach thereof; strongly condemns the systematic threats to the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights that have been brought about by the Hungarian government to the detriment of its own people and expresses deep regret that the lack of decisive EU action has contributed to turning Hungary into a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy, according to the relevant indices;
Amendment 219 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Strongly regDeplorets the inability of the Council to make meaningful progress in the ongoing Article 7(1) TEU procedure; urges the Council to ensure that hearings take place at a minimum once per Presidency during ongoing Article 7 TEU procedures and also address new developments affecting the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights; calls on the Council to publish comprehensive minutes after each hearing; emphasises that there is no need for unanimity in the Council either to identify a clear risk of a serious breach of Union values under Article 7(1), or to address concrete recommendations to the Member States in question and provide deadlines for the implementation of those recommendations; reiterates its call for the Council to do so, underlining that any further delay to such action would amount to a breach of the rule of law principle by the Council itself; stresses that Member States have the obligation to act together and put an end to attacks on core EU values; calls on the Council to issue recommendations to Hungary as soon as possible in order to remedy the issues mentioned in its resolution of 12 September 2018 and in the present resolution, asking it to implement all the judgments and recommendations mentioned; insists that Parliament’s role and competences be duly respected;
Amendment 220 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Calls on the Council and the Commission to devote more attention to systemic changes that have been brought about by the government in its systematic dismantling of Rule of Law, as well as to the interplay between the various breaches of EU values identified in its resolutions; underlines that leaving Rule of Law breaches unchecked undermines democratic institutions and eventually affects the human rights and lives of everyone in the country,