During its EU presidency in the second half of 2024, Hungary will work hard to uphold and strengthen the fundamental values of the European Union (EU), including the rule of law, the justice minister wrote on her Facebook page on Wednesday.
JM Varga said she discussed the rule of law and democracy with her Swedish, Belgian and Spanish counterparts, as well as with EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders at the ministerial symposium in Stockholm. The minister explained that they had established four objectives "to untangle the now hopelessly entangled web of the rule of law debate."
For the EU to become a community of values, clear standards are needed, and it is up to the member states to set them. Such standards must also be set for the EU institutions, and the institutions must create the right tools and means that ensure that they, too, are able to meet these requirements.
– she said. Ms Varga noted that a rigorous methodology is needed to identify rule of law violations, and to ensure that the measures are necessary and proportionate. Instead of "media-induced hysteria and witch-hunts," we need objective procedures, she stressed. She underlined that rule of law mechanisms would only work if the institutions and member states concerned viewed them as being "for and about them," and that they were applied in cooperation with them. Otherwise, these procedures will only create divisions and mutual mistrust," the justice minister wrote, adding that the culture of consensus must be rediscovered.
And in the fourth place she said Hungary, when holding the rotating presidency of the Council of Europe, will strive to make it a real center of rule of law procedures once again. The EU is a community of values. Building on the experience of the previous Hungarian presidency and "the work of our partners, we will work to strengthen mutual trust and respect," JM Judit Varga wrote in her Facebook post.
Cover photo: Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga (Photo: Arpad Kurucz)
