30 Amendments of Véronique MATHIEU HOUILLON related to 2012/2130(INI)
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 37
Citation 37
– having regard to the ongoing infringement proceedings in Case C- 288/12 brought by the European Commission against Hungary over the independence of the dlegality of the termination of the mandate of the former Commissioner for Data pProtection authoritystill pending before the European Court of Justice,
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas Article 4(1) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) stipulates that competences not conferred upon the Union in the Treaties remain with the Member States;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D b (new)
Recital D b (new)
Db. whereas Article 5(2) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), by virtue of the principle of conferral, allows the Union to act only within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the Member States in the Treaties to attain the objectives set out therein;
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas according to Article 7(1) TEU grants the EU institutions the power to assess whethermay determine that there is a clear risk of a serious breach of the commonby a Member State of the values referred to in Article 2 by a Member State, and to engage politically with the country concerned in order to prevent and redress violations, while the ultimate purpose of the means laid down in Article 7(2) and (3) TEU is to penalise and remedy any serious and persistent breach of common values; whereas before making such a determination, the Council shall hear the Member State in question and may address recommendations to it, acting in accordance with the same procedure;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital T
Recital T
T. whereas any Member State of the European Union is absolutely free to review its constitution and whereas the very meaning of democratic alternation is that it enables a new government to enact legislation reflecting the will of its people and its values and political commitments;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital U
Recital U
U. whereas the tumultuous history of democratic traditions in Europe shows that reforming a constitution requires utmost care and due consideration of procedures and guarantees aimed at preserving, among other things, the rule of law, the separation of powers and the hierarchy of legal norms – the constitution being the supreme law of the land;
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital W a (new)
Recital W a (new)
Wa. whereas the Commission, in the exercise of its responsibility for overseeing the application of Union law, has to show the utmost skill, respect the independence of others, and act diligently, swiftly, and without delay, especially when it is called upon to deal with a case in which a Member State may have committed a serious breach of Union values;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital AA
Recital AA
AA. whereas, despitein the wake of that Decision, the Fourth Amendment to the Fundamental Law, adopted on 11 March 2013, integrates into the text of the Fundamental Law all the transitional provisions annulled by the Constitutional Court, with the exception of the provision requiring electoral registration, as well as other previously annulled provisions;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital AG
Recital AG
AG. whereas, under the Fundamental Law, the powers of the Constitutional Court to review budget-related law1989 constitutional regime the newly established Hungarian Constitutional Court received the broadest possible powers thave been substantially limited to violations of an exhaustive list of rights, thus obstructing the review of constitutionality in cases of breaches of other fundamental rights, such as the right to propet can be delegated to a court of its kind, and whereas after twenty years of jurisprudence there was a broad consensus – even by members of the Court – that the powers of the Constitutional Court should be revised; and whereas in several Member States does not even exist the institute of a separate constitutional court at all (e.g. among others in Finland or in Greece, or the Danish system of courtys, the right to a fair trial and the right not to be discriminated against; which are based on a unified structure, or in Ireland, where Supreme Court can deal with constitutional issues);
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital AH
Recital AH
AH. whereas the Fourth Amendment of the Fundamental Law left untouched the already existing right ofintroduces for the first time an explicit reference enabling the Constitutional Court to review amendments to the Fundamental Law on procedural grounds, and whereas it excludes in the future the Court being able to review constitutional amendments on substantive grounds; ; whereas the Constitutional Court never had competence to review constitutional amendments on substantive grounds stated by the Constitutional Court in its interpretation several times; and whereas the assessment of the Venice Commission on the review of constitutional amendments by constitutional courts concludes that this is a rare feature of constitutional jurisdiction, and that "such a control cannot therefore be considered as a requirement of the rule of law" (paragraph 49 of Opinion No. 679/2012 on the Revision of the Constitution of Belgium); and whereas in several Member States the competences of the constitutional court is limited or restricted to a certain type of procedures, furthermore, there is no legal regulation for the competences of the constitutional court regarding the supervision of the constitution or any amendments thereof among others in Austria, Lithuania, Slovenia, France or Portugal;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital AM
Recital AM
AM. whereas the Commission initiated an infringement procedure against Hungary on 8 June 2012, declaring that Hungary had failed to fulfil its obligations under Directive 95/46/EC by removing the data protection supervisor from office before the end of the mandate, thus putting at risk the independence of the off; whereas the case is currently pending before the European Court of Justice;
Amendment 156 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital BQ
Recital BQ
BQ. whereas the Fourth Amendment imposes press restrictions as it bans all political advertising during electoral campaigns except for advertensures the publication of political advertisings via public media (radio and television) on an equal basis and free of charge, and it does not affect at all political advertisings not displayed through broadcasting services (e.g. posters, flyers, internet); whereas similar restriction exists in a number of European countries, such as France and Italy and was also recognised by the European Court of Human Rights in one of its recent judgments; and whereas the Hungarian Government is ing in the public media consultation with the European Commission with a view to fine-tuning the rules on political advertising;
Amendment 194 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Recalls that respect for legality, including a transparent, accountable and democratic procthe "Union is founded on the valuess of enacting laws, and for a strong system of representative democracy based on free elections and respecting the rights of the opposition are key elements of the concepts of democracy and the rule of law as enshrined in Article 2 TEU and proclaimed in the Preambles to both the Treaty on the European Union and the Charter,respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail" as enshrined in Article 2 TEU;
Amendment 195 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Firmly reiterates that, while the drafting and the adoption of a new constitution falls within the scope of Member States’ competences, Member States and the EU have the responsibility to ensure that the constitutional processes and the contents of constitutions are in conformity with the commitments entered into by every Member State under the EU Accession Treaties, that is to say, the common values of the Union, the Charter and the ECHR;
Amendment 213 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Recalls that the common values of the Union of democracy and the rule of law require a strong system of representative democracy based on free elections and respecting the rights of the opposition and that according to Article 3 of Protocol 1 to the ECHR elections should guarantee the 'expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of the legislator‘', which is the very case in Hungary;
Amendment 225 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. SharUnderlines the opinion of the Venice Commission (No CDL-AD(2012)01)016), according to which the adoption of a large amount of legislation in a very short time frame could explain why some of the new provisions do not comply with European standards; which "welcomes the fact that this new Constitution establishes a constitutional order based on democracy, the rule of law and the protection of fundamental rights as underlying principles. It notes that constitutions of other European States, such as Poland, Finland, Switzerland or Austria, have been used as a source of inspiration. A particular effort has been made to follow closely the technique and the contents of the ECHR and to some extent the EU Charter.";
Amendment 231 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Considers that the limitation of constitutional jurisdiction relating to the laws on the central budget and taxes is in contradiction with the requirements of democracy, the rule of law and the principle of judicial review, as it weakens the institutional and procedural guarantees for the protection of a number of constitutional rights and for controlling the parliament's and the government's powers in the budgetary fielcontrol of central budget by constitutional courts is not a common European standard;
Amendment 246 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Is deeply concerned about this shift of powers in constitutional matters to the advantage of the parliament and to the detriment of the Constitutional Court, which severely undermineUnderlines that according to rule of law a democratically elected Parliament has the right and duty to adopt the Constitution and Laws, and the Constitutional Court has the principle of separation of powers and a correctly functioning systemght and duty to safeguard the compatibility of cthecks and balances, which are key corollaries of the rule of law laws with the Constitution;
Amendment 256 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Welcomes the factTakes note that the Commission has launched an infringement procedure against Hungary over the independence of the dlegality of the termination of the mandate of the former Commissioner for Data pProtection supervisor, which case is currently pending at the European Court of Justice;
Amendment 287 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 37
Paragraph 37
37. Expresses concern at the effects of the proTakes note that the Fourth Amendment ensures the publication of political advertisings via public media (radio and television) of the Fourth Amendment banning political advertising in the commercialn an equal basis and free of charge with the aim to create equal opportunities for the political parties in the electronic media, as although the announced aim of this provision is to reduce political campaign costs and create equal opportunities for the parties, it jeopardises the provision of balanced informationwell as reduce campaign costs and contribute to the transparency and verifiability of campaign financing; this does not at all affect political advertisings not displayed through broadcasting services (e.g. posters, flyers, internet); takes note that the Hungarian Government is in consultation with the European Commission with a view to fine-tuning the rules on political advertising; underlines that a similar restriction exists in a number of European countries, such as France and Italy;
Amendment 297 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42
Paragraph 42
42. Is concerUnderlineds that public service broadcasting is controlled by an extremely centralised institutional system which takes the real operational decisions without publin line with the Amsterdam Protocol attached to the Treaty (on the System of the Public Broadcasting in the Members States) the system of the public broadcasting in the Member States is directly related to the democratic, scrutiny; underlines that biased and opaque tendering practices and the biased information ofocial and cultural needs of each society and to the need to preserve media pluralism, and Member States remain free to organise their public service broadcasting reaching a wide audience distort the media marketay they deem appropriate;
Amendment 301 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 44
Paragraph 44
44. Notes that the Hungarian Parliament has enacted legislation in criminal and civil areas to combat racial incitement and hate speech; points out, however, that legislation on its own cannotconsiders that the adopted legislative measures are the most important starting point to achieve the goal of creating a society free from intolerance and discrimination throughout Europe, as concrete measures can only be built upon firm legislation;
Amendment 324 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 48
Paragraph 48
48. ReaffirmsTakes note of the fact that its present resolution is not only about Hungary, but inseparably about the European Union as a whole, and its democalthough several issues raised are present in the legal system and practic reconstruction and development after the fall of the 20th century totalitarianisms. It is about the European family, its common values and standards, its inclusiveness and its capacity to engage in dialogue. It is about the need to implement Treaties which all Member States have voluntarily acceded to. It is about the mutual help and mutual trust that the Union, its citizens and Member States need to havee of several Member States; Regrets that the principle detailed in Article 4(2) - according to which "the Union shall respect the equality of Member States before the Treaties as well as their national identities, inherent ifn these Treaties are to be more than just words on paper but the legal basis for a true, just and open Europe respecting fundamental rightsir fundamental structures, political and constitutional" - was not taken into account;
Amendment 333 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 51
Paragraph 51
Amendment 350 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 58
Paragraph 58
58. Considers that the European Council cannot remain inactive in cases where one of the Member States is faced with changes that may negatively affect thebreaches the concrete fundamental rights or rule of law in that country, and therefore the rule of law in the European Union at large, in particular when mutual trust in the legal system and judicial cooperation may be put at risks it affects negatively the European Union; stresses furthermore that the European Council cannot use double standards when looking at Member States and its infringements;
Amendment 354 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 60 – introductory part
Paragraph 60 – introductory part
60. Calls on the Commission as the guardian of the Treaties: and as the body responsible for ensuring that Union law is correctly applied, under the supervision of the Court of Justice of the European Union;
Amendment 360 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 60 – indent 3
Paragraph 60 – indent 3
– to focus not only on specific infringements of EU law to be remedied notably through Article 258 TFEU, but to draw the consequences of a systemic change of the constitutional and legal system of a Member State where multiple and recurrent infringements unfortunately result in a state of legal uncertainty which not longer meets the requirements of Article 2 TEUas this is what is in its mandate under the Treaty;
Amendment 361 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 60 – indent 4
Paragraph 60 – indent 4
– to adopt a more comprehensive approach to addressing any potential risks of serious breach of fundamental values in a given Member State at an early stage and immediately to engage in a structured political dialogue with the relevant Member State and the other EU institutions without applying double standards; this structured political dialogue should be coordinated at the highest political level of the Commission and have a clear impact on the full spectrum of negotiations between the Commission and the Member State concerned in the various EU fields;
Amendment 369 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 60 – indent 9
Paragraph 60 – indent 9
– to regularly monitor the correct functioning of the European area of justice and to take action when the independence of the judiciary is put at risk in any Member State without applying double standards, with a view to avoiding the weakening of mutual trust between national judicial authorities, which would inevitably create obstacles to the correct application of the EU instruments on mutual recognition and cross-border cooperation;