This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Warning of persistent threats to the rule of law in Hungary and the continuing deterioration of common values, Civil Liberties MEPs have reiterated their calls for EU action. On Wednesday, the Committee on Civil Liberties adopted its second interim report on the Article 7 […]Hungary’s rule of law crisis is deepening, Civil Liberties Committee MEPs warn
November 6, 2025 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Warning of persistent threats to the rule of law in Hungary and the continuing deterioration of common values, Civil Liberties MEPs have reiterated their calls for EU action. On Wednesday, the Committee on Civil Liberties adopted its second interim report on the Article 7 […]Commission mobilises €50 million in emergency support to farmers in Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania
October 13, 2025 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The Commission today adopted a proposal to provide nearly €50 million from the agricultural reserve to support fruit, nuts and vegetable farmers in Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania. Farmers in these Member States have recently suffered significant damages from adverse climatic events. […]Commission considers that Hungary has not sufficiently addressed breaches of the principles of the rule of law and therefore maintains measures to protect the Union budget
December 18, 2024 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Today the European Commission has adopted a decision regarding Hungary under the EU budget general regime of conditionality. This decision finds that a Hungarian law notified to the Commission on 2 December 2024 is not sufficient to address risks of conflicts of interests in […]Commission decides to refer HUNGARY to the Court for failing to correctly transpose rules on the right of access to a lawyer and to communicate upon arrest
July 29, 2024 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Today, the European Commission decided to refer Hungary to the Court of Justice of the EU for failing to correctly transpose the Directive on the right of access to a lawyer and to communicate upon arrest (Directive 2013/48/EU). The deadline for Member States to transpose […]Rule of Law in Hungary: Parliament condemns the “Sovereignty Act”
April 25, 2024 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. A new resolution on the state of EU values in Hungary pinpoints several concerns, especially given the upcoming elections and the Hungarian Presidency of the Council. Wrapping up the plenary debate that took place on 10 April, Parliament adopted on Wednesday (399 votes in favour, 117 […]Hungary: MEPs denounce deliberate and systematic efforts to undermine EU values
June 2, 2023 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. In its latest resolution, Parliament raises serious concerns over developments in Hungary, in light of the upcoming Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU. Following a plenary debate on Wednesday on the situation of rule of law and fundamental rights in Hungary and […]Parliament insists that the EU must freeze funding to Hungary
November 25, 2022 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Commission and Council should resist pressure from Hungary and go ahead with adopting the proposed rule of law conditionality measures to suspend EU cohesion funds. In a resolution passed on Thursday by 416 votes in favour,124 against and 33 abstentions, MEPs say that the […]Protection of EU budget: MEPs warn Commission to “not compromise” with Hungary
October 5, 2022 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. On Tuesday, Members of the European Parliament warned the Commission against falling short of protecting the EU’s financial interests in Hungary. “This is the first time the rule of law mechanism is being put into motion and it requires member states to treat it […]MEPs: Hungary can no longer be considered a full democracy
September 16, 2022 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Parliament condemns the “deliberate and systematic efforts of the Hungarian government” to undermine European values and demands results in the Article 7 process. The lack of decisive EU action has contributed to the emergence of a “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy”, i.e. a constitutional […]Hungary: member states have an obligation to end attacks on EU values
July 14, 2022 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. European values are under systemic threat in Hungary, says the Civil Liberties Committee, pointing to the latest developments in the country. In a draft report adopted on Wednesday with 47 votes for, 10 against, and 2 abstentions, MEPs detail their concerns about Hungary, including: […]As Hungary blocks global tax deal, MEPs denounce national vetoes
July 7, 2022 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. MEPs criticize countries abusing their vetoes on tax matters and demand a relaunch of discussions to gradually introduce majority voting. The resolution adopted on Wednesday with 450 votes in favour, 132 votes against and 55 abstentions, closes the debate which took place during June’s […]State aid: Commission approves €226 million Hungarian scheme to support SMEs in context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
June 20, 2022 by 1 Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has approved a €226 million(HUF 90 billion) Hungarian scheme to support small and medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs’) across sectors in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The scheme was approved under the State aid Temporary Crisis Framework, adopted by the Commission […]Hungary and Poland plans should be approved only if concerns are addressed
October 7, 2021 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. In a debate with Commissioner Gentiloni on the Hungarian and Polish recovery plans, MEPs called for more transparency to make sure funds are properly allocated. Economy Commissioner Gentiloni updated MEPs on Wednesday, saying that currently 22 of the 25 submitted national recovery plans have […]Rule of law in Hungary: MEPs to meet government, NGOs, and opposition
September 29, 2021 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. A delegation of MEPs is travelling to Hungary to assess the respect for press and academic freedom, the rights of minorities and the wider rule of law context. During their three-day visit to Budapest (Wednesday 29 September-Friday 1 October), MEPs are scheduled to meet […]State aid: Commission approves 2022-2027 regional aid map for Hungary
September 16, 2021 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has approved under EU State aid rules Hungary’s map for granting regional aid from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2027. The Hungarian regional aid map is among the first maps approved by the Commission within the framework of the revised […]How China became EU’s biggest trading partner and why Brussels should maintain that by all means
August 9, 2021 by Leave a Comment
In a disastrous pandemic year 2020 for the entire world and a global economy with recessions all over, there is good news about EU-China economic relations that the media severely underplayed. EU trade with China in 2020 was €586 billion whereas trade with US was €554. This means that in a remarkably turbulent year for […]EU founding values: Commission starts legal action against Hungary and Poland for violations of fundamental rights of LGBTIQ people
July 16, 2021 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. “Europe will never allow parts of our society to be stigmatised: be it because of whom they love, because of their age, their ethnicity, their political opinions, or their religious beliefs.” President Ursula von der Leyen, (European Parliament, 7 July 2021) Equality and the […]Recovery and Resilience Facility: Hungary submits official recovery and resilience plan
May 12, 2021 by 1 Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The Commission has received an official recovery and resilience plan from Hungary. This plan sets out the reforms and investment projects that Hungary plans to implement with the support of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). The RRF is the key instrument at the […]EU values in Hungary and Poland: debate on recent developments
November 30, 2020 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Debate today on Article 7 developments and the state of LGBTI rights in Poland and Hungary with Commissioner for Justice Reynders and Commissioner for Equality Dalli. When: Monday, 30 November 17.05 – 18.45 Where: European Parliament in Brussels, József Antall building, room 2Q2 and […]This Hungarian man quit his job to clean up his favourite river
October 18, 2019 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Charlotte Edmond, Formative Content Bence Pardy used to clear tables for a living. Now he picks up plastic waste from his local river. Pardy quit his job as a waiter in Budapest to wage a battle against the trash […]Taxation: Commission refers Hungary to the Court for failing to apply the minimum EU excise duty on cigarettes
October 11, 2019 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The Commission decided today to refer Hungary to the Court of Justice for failing to apply the minimum EU threshold for excise duty on cigarettes set out in EU rules on manufactured tobacco. Hungary was allowed a long transitional period until 31 December 2017 […]Hungary: Commission takes next step in the infringement procedure for non-provision of food in transit zones
October 11, 2019 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Today, the European Commission decided to address a reasoned opinion to Hungary concerning the non-provision of food to persons held in the Hungarian transit zones at the border with Serbia. This concerns persons whose applications for international protection have been rejected, and who are waiting […]Will the EU reconsider Frontex’s role in light of accusations about violations of migrants’ human rights?
August 7, 2019 by 1 Comment
The European border agency Frontex has been found to violate human rights and abuse its power to make excessive use of force and mistreat migrants according to latest research conducted by the ARD political magazine report München, the British Guardian and the search center CORRECTIV. However, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency has been denying […]Hungary must enforce its foreign bribery offence against companies, including foreign subsidiaries
August 2, 2019 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with OECD. The Working Group is concerned that Hungary has not commenced any foreign bribery investigations or prosecutions in over nine years since the Phase 3 evaluation of implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. However, the companies operating in the country have significant exposure to export-related risks of […]EU elections 2019: Trump’s share in the support of populism
May 15, 2019 by Leave a Comment
It was last Monday when the US President Donald Trump met the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the White House. Both leaders had the beautiful chance to praise each other at a gathering which lasted less than an hour. Only a few days ahead of the EU elections, the US President clearly shows his […]Council strongly criticised over failing to act to protect EU values in Hungary
March 22, 2019 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Civil Liberties Committee MEPs condemned the Council’s inaction relating to EU values in Hungary, following last September’s Article 7 request by Parliament. In the debate with the Commission’s First Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Political and Security Committee Permanent Representative Călin Stoica, on behalf of […]Hungary: people born in the 2020s won’t have legal rights any more to buy tobacco
December 7, 2018 by 1 Comment
This article was exclusively written for the The European Sting by Ms. Zsanett Dren, a 5th year medical student from University of Debrecen, Hungary. She is affiliated to the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. However, the opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view […]Migration crisis update: mutual actions and solidarity needed as anti-migrant policies thrive
September 19, 2018 by Leave a Comment
An EU summit is taking place today in Salzburg, Austria where the EU leaders will discuss about the immigration crisis in the region and Brexit deal negotiations. The Parliament’s request to the member states regarding Hungary’s breach of the EU founding values is creating turbulences to the unity and solidarity of the Old Continent. The […]Rule of law in Hungary: Parliament calls on the EU to act
September 17, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Parliament has asked EU member states to determine, in accordance with Treaty Article 7, whether Hungary is at risk of breaching the EU´s founding values. The request was approved by 448 votes to 197, with 48 abstentions. To be adopted, the proposal required an […]Commission hardens its stance against carmakers ensuring emissions reductions targets
August 8, 2018 by 1 Comment
The car industry will be under tighter surveillance by the European Commission after 2020 when the next phase of the EU’s emission regulation will take place. All car manufacturers who do not meet the 2021 fleet CO2 emissions compliance for new passenger vehicles sold in the Old Continent will face fines of more than €14 […]The US calls off globalization, targets Germany. Paris offer to Berlin comes at a cost
June 25, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Last Friday, the ‘America first’ President Donald Trump repeated his threats to impose a super tariff on imports of European cars, obviously having in mind the German automotive industry. His latest menace came only hours after the European Union moderately retaliated to the US aggressive trade action, by levying additional import duties on American goods […]The Bavarians threaten Berlin and Brussels with immigration crisis
June 21, 2018 by 2 Comments
In an unprecedented move, the German Interior Minister is betraying his boss – Chancellor Angela Merkel – and is forming an anti-refugee alliance with the extreme right-wing Austrian government and the precarious new Italian populist administration. The impossible German Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer, the leader of the Bavarian CSU party and junior partner in the […]Germany readies to pay for the Brexit gap in EU finance
February 26, 2018 by Leave a Comment
As expected, last Friday’s informal European Council of the 27 EU leaders didn’t produce any tangible result regarding its main agenda item; the future of Europe. The EU leaders just quarreled on who is to cover the hole in the budget, after Britain’s contribution ends with Brexit. In relation to this perennial question of money […]
