H.E. Dr. Tamás Magyarics:

I wish to state firmly that Hungary is and will be a member of the European family. We are in compliance with the acquis communautaire. The fundamental law in Hungary is based on the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. In the past hour or so, I repeatedly wanted to convey this message, that there might have been disputes over certain sections, not the whole, but the government went out of its way to meet half way with the requirements and requests of the European Union. Let me give one example, which is the case of transferring a case from one court to another. There are countries in the European Union in which the Judiciary can transfer one case from one court to another. The Hungarian Government took this provision out of the fundamental law at the request of the European Commission despite the fact that we maintain the view that it is not anything new and is an existing practice in the European Union. On Tuesday, it was mentioned that the Hungarian Government was constitutionalising certain regulations, that is, taking them from the area of common law and putting them in the constitution and, therefore, they cannot be challenged by the courts. This is what the French were doing in several different cases. Regulations that were widely disputed were simply put into the constitution, putting it beyond the reach of the courts in France. In general, every single provision that one can find in the fundamental law or the different amendments to the Hungarian fundamental law can be found in one, two or three or more members of the European Union, possibly not everything in one constitution but the point is that not one single provision has been put into the constitution that has not been present in one, two or three other constitutions or fundamental laws in European Union countries.
As I said in my opening statement, the Hungarian fundamental law and its amendments have been thoroughly investigated, debated and scrutinised as no such legislation has been in the European Union. Frankly speaking, I think we possibly contributed to a stronger European Union because certain precedents have been created with this process. Therefore, the European Union has been made stronger simply by showing that any debate within the family can be settled peacefully, democratically and in a way that is in the spirit and tradition of European values.