In his address during a European Parliament debate on the risk of Hungary breaching the EU's fundamental values, Michael McGrath noted that the EC regularly expresses its concerns regarding Hungary in its annual Rule of Law Reports.

He said the Council of the EU has so far held nine formal hearings on Hungary, adding that "there has been no progress" on most of the EC's concerns.

The commissioner said some 18 billion euros in funding have been blocked for Hungary, of which 1 billion "has been definitively lost".

Dutch MEP Tineke Strik of the Greens, the rapporteur on Hungary, said the country had "continued and increased its violation of EU values" following the launch of the Article 7 procedure.

She criticised the state of Hungary's judicial system, the government's rule by decree, "widespread" corruption and the media environment, its opposition to LGTBQ among other areas, insisting that Hungary "has turned into a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy".

Democratic Coalition MEP Klara Dobrev said the government's "total control" of Hungary had resulted in the collapse of checks and balances, public administration kowtowing to the prime minister and the market economy being replaced by "a political mafia and corruption". 

She said Hungarians had been left to fend for themselves and the country had become impoverished "as the EU failed to act for a long time".

Kinga Gal, an MEP of Hungary's ruling Fidesz, said Hungary had been the victim of a "witch hunt" for the last 15 years "with increasingly absurd accusations". She said the criticisms against Hungary stemmed from claims from "activist NGOs" doing the bidding of foreign interests.

Gal said Hungary was being attacked because it defends its national interests, rejects illegal migration, gender ideology and Ukraine's fast-tracked EU accession. She said the "patriots" refused to accept attacks on national sovereignty, the use of the rule of law as a "political weapon" or "lecturing" by the EU.

Our Homeland MEP Zsuzsanna Borvendeg said she agreed with the statement in the EU's latest report on Hungary about a lack of will to tackle corruption, adding, however, that "there's no political will to address corruption in Brussels, either."

Fidesz MEP Andras Laszlo said the draft resolution on Hungary was aimed at "foreign intervention" backed by the European People's Party and the left-wing EP groups.

He said the EP wanted to suspend all of the funds Hungary is entitled to and revoke its voting and veto rights in the European Council "to open the door to Ukraine's EU accession".

Csaba Domotor, another Fidesz MEP, said the EP drafted a report to discredit Hungary ahead of every general election.

He said the procedures against Hungary "have nothing to do with the rule of law", but were just meant to put pressure on the country, adding that Hungary's answer would come from the election.
 

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