János Bóka, the minister of EU affairs, said in Brussels on Tuesday that Hungary is working to strengthen transparency regarding the European Union funding of NGOs, adding that there was a “fundamental misunderstanding regarding the role of NGOs in a democratic society”.
After a meeting of EU affairs ministers, Minister Bóka said Hungary and Slovakia did not support a proposal by the Polish presidency of the Council of the EU on strengthening democratic resilience in Europe. “The text conflates the situation of constitutional institutions and NGOs, as well as the place of political parties and NGOs in a democratic society,” he said.
“In our opinion, European institutions and certain member states misinterpret [the concept of] democratic resilience,” Minister Bóka said, warning that democratic resilience would be used “to justify foreign interference into member states’ democratic processes rather than to strengthen their democratic institutions.”
Commenting on Hungary’s eighth hearing at the General Affairs Council within the framework of the Article 7 procedure against the country, Minister Bóka said that “after a long wait”, the European Commission had closed the infringement procedures launched in connection with Hungarian legislation on the Central European University and the “Stop Soros” package of laws. “The infringement procedures were closed because the European Commission itself has established that the Hungarian legislation currently in force is in line with EU legislation.”
Regarding preparations for the EU summit in late June, Minister Bóka said Hungary supported that the European Council tabled”the situation in the Western Balkans”. “We trust that the EU’s leaders will send the positive message to the region that their future is in Europe,” he said.
Hungary also supported a Swedish proposal that cross-border organised crime should be tabled in the EU as a risk to security and the rule of law. Hungary agreed that the fight against organised crime was in many areas a European task, “including, for example, organised crime groups organising illegal migration from outside the EU,” he said.
