Dispute between EU Commission and Hungary comes to a head
While the European Commission no longer rules out sanctions against Budapest, the Hungarian government is standing by its position and defending the controversial legislation.
The new media law is a truly European law: it does not contain a single passage that could not be found in the legislation of individual or even several European member states, wrote Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's spokesman in a statement distributed in Brussels on Tuesday, according to SDA.
Italy, France and Sweden, for example, also regulate the work of various media sectors broadly. "The option of fines of several hundred thousand euros or the revocation of a license for repeated violations of laws (...) can also be found in the media laws of Germany, Finland and Poland," it continues. Hungary is prepared to exchange opinions, but is opposed to the "political and ideological attacks" that have been carried out to date. At the same time, the government emphasized that it does not intend to restrict freedom of expression - rather, freedom of the press will be strengthened.
The EU Commission, on the other hand, has doubts about the legality of the Hungarian media law and is examining its compatibility with European law. After initially remaining silent, the EU authority is now taking a tough stance. On Tuesday, a Commission spokesperson no longer ruled out sanctions and stated that proceedings for violation of the EU treaties were independent of the respective rotating EU presidency. Hungary took over the EU Council Presidency on January 1.
