Bill on NGOs receiving foreign funds was submitted to the Parliament
On 7 April 2017, a Bill on NGOs receiving foreign funds was submitted to the Hungarian Parliament, setting out that NGOs receiving foreign funds over a certain yearly threshold will have to register themselves and will have to label themselves as organizations receiving foreign funds on their website and in their publications.
The Hungarian Government has been attacking NGOs since 2013. This series of governmental attacks against Hungarian NGOs, which organizations operate by their nature as checks and critics of the state power and fight for reinforcing the rule of law and ensuring the protection of human rights, is another step in the process aimed at establishing an “illiberal state”.
Governmental attacks included condemning public statements by high-ranking state officials (including the Prime Minister) alleging that some NGOs are closely linked to political parties and/or serve “foreign interests”; an illegitimate state audit by the Government Control Office into the use of the EEA/Norway Grants NGO Fund; criminal procedures launched against members of the consortium of NGOs distributing the EEA/Norway Grants NGO Fund; a police raid of their offices (later found unlawful by the investigation judge); and the suspension of their tax numbers. Even though the official proceedings launched as part of the governmental attacks against the Hungarian consortium of NGOs distributing the EEA/Norway Grants NGO Fund and organizations supported by the NGO Fund ceased or were terminated (without any criminal charges brought) by the beginning of 2016, critical and threatening statements from the government and the governing parties against human rights and watchdog NGOs continued, primarily targeting NGOs supported by the Open Society Foundations.
The Eötvös Károly Institute, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and Transparency International Hungary prepared and has been regularly updating a timeline of the governmental attacks against Hungarian NGOs in English.
The latest timeline, updated as of 7 April 2017, may be downloaded here: