On Wednesday the European Commission issued a report on the rule of law in the EU member states. This year’s document is the first in the subject, and the report will be issued every year on all member states. Reacting to the document on her social media page, Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga wrote that the report was “absurd and untrue”, therefore it could not serve as a basis for any further discussion on rule of law in the European Union, the V4 news agency reported.

The Hungarian politician pointed out that “the concept and methodology of the Commission’s rule of law report is flawed, its sources are unbalanced and its content is unfounded.” She added that the “Commission’s rule of law report makes no references to objective benchmarks that equally apply for all Member States”. Judit Varga also stated that the “choice of sources in the report is biased and non-transparent. It is unacceptable that the Commission’s rule of law report is written by organisations from a centrally financed international network engaged in a coordinated political campaign against Hungary.”

As she noted in her post: “The Hungarian chapter makes reference to 12 civil society organisations. Of those, 11 civil society organisations have in recent years received financial support from the Open Society Foundations (OSF) related to George Soros.” Soros finances countless organisations not only in Hungary, but also in Europe, as V4NA had pointed out earlier.

Hungarian organisations receiving funds from OSF include, among others, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, which was awarded a grant of 610 thousand dollars in 2016 and an additional 50 thousand dollars in 2018. K-Monitor Association pocketed more than 55 thousand dollars in 2018, while it received 30 thousand in 2017. The organisation called Mertek Media Monitor also received funding from George Soros’s foundations, amounting to more than 27 thousand dollars in 2017. The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union was granted 476 026 dollars in 2016, with an additional 50 thousand dollars coming in 2018. Reference is made to all these organisations in the report.

Judit Varga pointed out that “Hungary is one of the few Member States where genuine pluralism prevails in the media and ideological debates as well as in the general opinion”. The minister underlined that “an objective and impartial analysis of all reliable information concerning the situation in Hungary may only conclude that the fundamental values of the European Union are respected, and the rule of law is observed”.

In a press conference devoted to the Commission’s rule of law report, Balazs Hidveghi – MEP of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party – pointed out that it is nothing but an open political blackmail, adding that the text is full of absurd and false statements dictated by organisations allied with George Soros for to Vera Jourova to put to paper.