Slacking on the Job with Total Impunity

There are no legal or financial consequences for Peter Magyar's failure to show up at his workplace in spite of the electoral mandate he received, as there are practically no sanctions in EU law for MEPs who are regularly absent from plenary or committee meetings. According to Zoltan Lomnici Jr., in addition to MEP Peter Magyar receiving without working the equivalent of several million forints a month from European citizens' taxes, it is morally unacceptable that he does not participate in the work of the European Parliament.

Tisza Party President and MEP Peter Magyar (Photo: Tamas Purger)

MEP Peter Magyar suffers practically no legal ramifications for not appearing at the work place at all and for not attending committee meetings, even though he is vice-chairman of the Constitutional Affairs Committee. There are no specific rules on how many times and for how long MEPs can be absent, therefore, there are no legal consequences either.

Representatives in the European Parliament are paid twice the salary of representatives in the Hungarian Parliament, yet there is very little mention in EU law of the obligation to perform their duties properly or the details of how to do so,

the constitutional lawyer told Magyar Nemzet, pointing out that in Hungary, the legislation in force clearly stipulates the obligation of MPs to be present and sets strict financial consequences in cases of failing to perform their duties properly or being unjustifiably absent from meetings or committee work. The EU legislation, by contrast, is rather deficient on the obligation of MEPs to perform their duties properly, as well as on detailing the obligation, and furthermore does not stipulate any financial sanctions in cases of unjustified absence.

"According to the EP Rules of Procedure, an attendance sheet must be signed by members at meetings. The names of members in attendance, as evidenced by the attendance sheet, shall be entered in the minutes of the sitting as being present. The names of members whose absence is certified by the president shall be entered in the minutes of the meetings as justifiably absent. However, there is no specific rule on the number of times an MEP can be absent, and there is no legal consequence for a constant leave of absence," he said.
In Zoltan Lomnici Jr's view, MEPs not going to work nor doing the work and receiving thousands of euros a month from the taxes paid by European citizens is morally unacceptable, as it is contrary to the basic principles of indirect democracy.

"In the debate of the EP party list leaders ahead of the elections, Peter Magyar criticized MEP Tamas Deutsch for not being in attendance at many of the votes in the EP and promised that Tisza Party MEPs would go to the EP and dutifully represent the electorate."

"Despite this, Magyar was absent from the first important meeting of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, where he is the fourth vice-chairperson," the constitutional lawyer noted, saying that this can be seen as deceiving the electorate.

The Tisza Party chief would certainly not take his work so lightly if he were a member of the Hungarian Parliament, as the Parliamentary Act is much stricter and more precisely worded. "If an MEP does not go to work and does not take part in the work of the Parliament, he or she is not fully performing the duties declared in the Basic Law and the Parliamentary Act," Zoltan Lomnici Jr said, pointing out that in the 2024 term the Hungarian Parliament President Laszlo Kover has sanctioned fourteen MPs for unexcused absences. "Akos Hadhazy, an independent MP, has twice received a reduced salary for absenteeism. DK MPs, including Ferenc Gyurcsany and Laszlo Varju, were also fined for not taking part in the vote on the election of parliamentary committee officials. The DK MPs were fined a total of HUF 12.2 million (almost EUR 31 thousand)," he said, adding that in 2011 the House President fined MPs of LMP and MSZP for unjustified absences from the April votes on the Basic Law.

As a result of an ongoing investigation by the Central Investigating Prosecutor's Office into allegations of theft, Peter Polt, the Prosecutor General, has submitted a motion to the president of the European Parliament to waive the immunity of MEP Peter Magyar, the Prosecutor General's Office announced yesterday. The available data suggests that at dawn on June 21, 2024, the victim, and others recorded cell phone videos of Peter Magyar seemingly enjoying enjoying himself in a club in Budapest.

When Peter Magyar and one of his companions noticed that the man was filming, a verbal altercation ensued, during which, Peter Magyar suddenly snatched the phone from the plaintiff's hand and put it in his pocket. He did not return the phone even after repeated requests, denying that he had it. After leaving the nightclub, he walked to the Danube River bank, followed by several people, including the owner of the cell phone, and threw the phone in the river.

The Prosecutor General's statement stressed that there is a high probability that this conduct constitutes the criminal offence of theft.
In the meantime, the police received a report from Istvan Tenyi, following an article in Magyar Nemzet about a scandalous contract of the Student Loan Center led by Peter Magyar before his political career. As we reported, independent MEP Akos Hadhazy published a post on social media in which he claimed that Magyar, as the head of the Student Loan Center, had signed unwarranted and overpriced contracts. The owner of the company involved in the case is Balazs Lajos Trentin, who is currently one of the organizers of the Tisza Party and plays a key role in growing the party.