Fall of commitments – What the government promises and what ought to be done to strengthen the anti-corruption framework and the independence of the judiciary

The ongoing negotiations between the Government of Hungary and the European Commission regarding the conditions for Hungary’s access to the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility as well as the Conditionality Regulation, triggered by the European Commission in April 2022, provide an exceptional momentum to be seized to recover certain rule of law safeguards and build institutional resilience against further backsliding in Hungary. The Hungarian Government would need to make real commitments to tackle corruption in Hungary and to protect the European Union budget in the framework of these processes. However, the commitments made, and the legislative proposals put forward by the Government so far are clearly insufficient to reach any of these goals.

Briefing papers produced jointly by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC), K-Monitor, and Transparency International Hungary summarise the key events that have taken place since the Conditionality Mechanism was triggered in April, assess the publicly made commitments from the Government, and provide clear and actionable recommendations in order to bring about meaningful change in tackling corruption, protecting the EU budget, and recovering certain rule of law safeguards.

• Main rule of law related developments in Hungary since the triggering of the Conditionality Regulation(12 September 2022)
• Assessment of government resolutions of 5 September 2022 on certain anti-corruption related measures(12 September 2022)
• Recommendations for tackling corruption and protecting the EU budget (12 September 2022)
• Assessment of the Government’s measures to protect the EU budget (7 October 2022)
• The European Commission should be more intransigent to stop systemic corruption in Hungary – Civil society on Hungary’s unfolding anticorruption package (17 November 2022)
• Compliance with key implementation steps of the remedial measures as committed to by Hungary in the framework of the conditionality mechanism (17 November 2022)

See also:

• Joint assessment of Amnesty International Hungary, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, K-Monitor, and Transparency International Hungary on the Bills submitted to Parliament in July 2022 on public consultations and on prosecuting corruption cases, also part of the negotiations between the European Commission and the Government of Hungary (28 July 2022)
• The HHC’s brief on how unlawfully appointed judges to the Kúria put any anti-corruption measure in jeopardy (12 September 2022)
• Potential milestones aimed at restoring the rule of law in Hungary by HHC (19 October 2022)
• Milestone zero – Full screening of the Hungarian judiciary should be the baseline of recovery by HHC (28 November 2022)