Foreign
HUNGARY’S parliament on Tuesday officially abolished a 2017 anti-NGO law that was slammed by the EU’s top court and came under a chorus of international criticism.
In doing so it bowed to the European Court of Justice, which ruled in 2020 the law put “discriminatory and unjustified restrictions” on non-governmental organizations and their backers.
The law was one of several issues that have pitted Brussels against Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, in recent years amid worries about the country’s democratic backsliding.
The law had ordered groups receiving foreign donations above a certain limit to clearly identify them as such, to register with the authorities, and to disclose the names of donors.
Orban’s nationalist-conservative government said the aim was to increase transparency, but critics argued that was only served to stigmatize government critics.
In April, his government tabled a bill to abolish it and lawmakers approved it on Tuesday.
But parliament also passed a new provision concerning NGOs that required the State Audit Office of Hungary to prepare annual reports on NGOs whose annual balance sheet total exceeded a certain value.
Nineteen NGOs, including Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights complained that the state had thus created a new means of harassment. (dpa/NAN)
– May 18, 2021 @ 14:39 GMT
Tags: Hungary’s parliament abolishes NGO law
