EU opens legal proceedings against Hungary

[blokesbloke]

Hungarians must long for the good old days before the right wing loons, fascists, international markets and the EU

Oppressive and grey? No, growing up under communism was the happiest time of my life | Mail Online

To be fair whilst I enjoyed the article, presumably Hungary still has a Communist Party and if enough people felt the same way as she did, they could have voted them in - or certainly voted in a left-wing party of some kind.

I don't agree with all the Hungarian government is doing now, and if you sign up to EU treaties then you can't expect to break them, so I don't mind the EU taking enforcement action on things which genuinely break EU treaties, but the fact remains that the government won an overwhelming majority of the votes in a free and fair election.

The lady in the article seems to imply most people didn't want Communism to fall in Hungary, but if most people felt that way then surely it wouldn't have fallen? I note she's also left Hungary for the UK, so she's not stayed behind to try and change things or to get involved in politics or vote for left-wing parties.

[McDave]

If you bothered to read my first post.....

It's not a very illuminating post if you don't mind me saying so.

We have a firmly established democracy in Ireland. So do most countries in the EU. As it happens, Hungary is one of the few that are prepared to compromise their democratic system.

As for Lisbon 2, all interested parties are entitled to lay out their views. I don't particularly remember the EU being particularly active in the referendum campaign. And certainly not to the extent of our friends in UKIP.

[sondagefaux]

The EU, which has never had it's accounts signed off in two decades.....

Another eurosceptic myth:

The Court of Auditors has given last year, as it did in previous years, a clean bill of health on the EU accounts. The Court confirms these accounts faithfully reflect how the EU budget was spent. The Court also gives a separate opinion on whether all payments have been correctly processed, i.e. paid on time, the invoice properly signed, amounts paid correctly, whether the best and cheapest suppliers have been chosen, etc. The Court says it can only give positive assurance on some spending, not on the whole budget, as it has found errors in some of the payments under scrutiny.

Most of the errors found by the Court concerned EU funds under national management.

The EU test is much more rigorous than that of the private sector, where only book-keeping records are audited.

Sir John Bourn, the UK's Comptroller & Auditor, has recently confirmed that if the UK had a similar test to the European one, he might have to qualify the whole of British Central Government expenditure. In the UK some 500 accounts representing the expenditure of the British government are audited and signed off separately, with some not passing the test each year, whereas the whole of EU expenditure is subject to a single verdict.

Why is the EU budget never signed off by their internal Audit office? - Ecademy

Also worth reading:
Budget Control

...decides that Hungary is not running it's financial governance in an acceptable manner.

Strangely, enough, the previous Socialist government of Hungary, lied repeatedly concerning the state finances....and it became public.

And the EU were OK with it.

The EU is taking action against the current Hungarian government for its undermining of basic democratic principles, including the independence of the judiciary, freedom of expression and attempts to gerrymander constituency boundaries to help Fidesz's electoral prospects:

The Hungarian government’s interference with judicial independence and media freedom violates its international obligations and puts human rights at risk, Human Rights Watch said today. The government has provided no credible justification for the raft of regressive legal measures undermining human rights protections, the rule of law and the basic institutions that guarantee democracy.

The country’s new constitution, which came into force on January 1, 2012, and other laws adopted over the last year give the ruling Fidesz party, which holds a two-thirds majority in parliament, the ability to interfere arbitrarily with the judicial system and media, in violation of human rights law. Changes to election boundaries appear designed solely to ensure a continued parliamentary majority for the ruling party. The moves have provoked widespread international alarm, mass protests in Budapest and condemnation by former Hungarian dissidents.

Hungary: Reverse Interference with Courts, Media | Human Rights Watch

[clonycavanman]

Hungary might feel some moral support from the UK, where Conservative patience is wearing thin with the European Court of Human Rights. Withdrawal from the Court, or national legislation to limit it's remit is being considered.

Britain challenges power of human rights court - Telegraph

The European Commission is seeking to establish at the European Court of Justice a mechanism to discipline states it does not like; but this is a test case; Should EU case law be accomodative? Should the entire EU be panicked into crushing democratic choices because of lobbying by extra-national left-wing organisations?

[Fibonacci]

I'm not allowed post links yet but take the time to watch this on youTube.

Nigel Farage tells Hugarian president about EUSSR (22Jan11)

Or if someone would care to do the honours...

[toxic avenger]

I'm not allowed post links yet but take the time to watch this on youTube.

Nigel Farage tells Hugarian president about EUSSR (22Jan11)

Or if someone would care to do the honours...

Here you go - Farage is always worth a listen (even when I disagree)...

[Toman13]

Here you go - Farage is always worth a listen (even when I disagree)...

@ 45-48: They may laugh now, but they'll soon see the truth......