Judit Varga: We’ve refuted the Sargentini report’s accusations on several occasions!

The interest of Sargentini dictated the EP to ignore these votes.

20200916 Budapest Varga Judit igazságügyi miniszter Fotó: Kurucz Árpád KA Magyar Nemzet Fotó: Kurucz Árpád

„Let’s emphasize that today’s ruling by the Court of Justice does not in any way confirm the contents of the Sargentini report. The report’s accusations have been refuted by the Hungarian Government on several occasions, both professionally and in principle.”

Wrote Judit Varga on her Facebook page on Thursday after the European Court of Justice rejected Hungary’s lawsuit over the controversial voting process of the Sargentini report in 2018. The Justice Minister confirmed the Hungarian position on the matter, according to which the vote was not only contrary to EU treaties, but also to the EP’s own rules of procedure. „If abstentions had been taken into account when determining the proportion of votes in favor, which is based on clear procedural rules that would otherwise be easily identifiable even for a first-year law student, the two-thirds majority to adopt a politically biased report would not have been reached.” She went on to add:

„The interest of Sargentini dictated the EP to ignore these votes.”

„We may remember the interview in which the rapporteur herself asked potential abstainers to go out for coffee during the vote… And still, we are the ones who are held accountable for adhering to common values and rules? Come on!” added the Minster.

She believes it is also contradictory that while it took almost three years to rule on this procedural issue, in the case of the extremely complex Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism, the European Parliament itself called for the ECJ to speed up the process.