EU Threatens Hungary with Action over Constitution

Hungary has been threatened by the Euopean Union after modifications were made to its basic law for the fourth time since 2011, in which the Fidez-led government wrote it from scratch. "The changes have been widely criticized by local and international rights groups for barring the Constitutional Court from considering the legality of constitutional amendments and from applying case law and legal precedents predating the new Basic Law, and for introducing a restrictive legal environment for university undergraduates and homeless people." Both the European Union and the United States have warned that the new amendments would diminish the power of democratic checks and balances and potentially harm the rule of law, and the EU may have grounds for an infringement case if they are correct. Hungary has claimed they met a group of foreign constitution law experts and the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional matters, who studied their Constitution and declared it was legally sound.

Written by: Michelle Ankerholtz

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