Fidesz MEPs suspect that the European Parliament will employ “procedural tricks” to ensure that a motion to launch a sanctions procedure against Hungary passes when the legislative body votes on it next week, daily Magyar Idők said. Next Wednesday, MEPs are expected to vote on a report criticising the state of the rule of law in Hungary prepared by the EP’s civil liberties committee (LIBE). The report, authored by Green
MEP Judith Sargentini, says there is a “clear risk of a serious breach by Hungary of the values of the European Union”, and calls for launching the Article 7 procedure which suspends a member state’s rights. To pass, the motion will require the backing of a majority of MEPs and will
have to secure a two-thirds majority of votes cast, the paper notes. The Hungarian ruling party’s MEPs say there is a push to discount abstentions from the valid votes in an effort to ensure that the LIBE report is approved. Zoltán Gálik, an associate professor at Budapest’s Corvinus University, however, told Magyar Idők that it was unlikely that the EP’s procedural rules would be changed so near to the vote. He added, at the same time, that it still mattered in terms of the end result whether an MEP casts an abstention vote or does not vote at all. The paper noted that it was Fidesz MEP Tamás Deutsch who first expressed concern over the potential anomaly in the EP’s procedural rules. He underlined, however, that the counting of abstention votes in the EP is also regulated by the European Union’s founding treaty. Kinga Gál, also a Fidesz MEP, criticised the EP’s voting rules in an earlier interview to Magyar Idők, saying: “It’s funny that they’re questioning our adherence to the rule of law when they’re trying to circumvent EU law.”