Attempt for EU clone of CoE Venice Commission in Hungary's case, leaves EU Parliament divided...

*Strasbourg/EU Parliament/Angelo Marcopolo/- EU Parliament's Rapporteur on Hungary, "Green" MEP Tavares, replying to "EuroFora"s and other Media Questions in a Press Conference in Strasbourg on a Controversial attempt, just Droped or Ignored by more than 50% of MEPs, to practically "clone" CoE's Venice Commission, apparently in order to get an even more extensive criticism against the popular ChristianDemocrat/EPP Government of the country, (f.ex. on the Definition of Family, etc), that many denounced as "Politically Motivated" and for reportedly practicing "Double Standards", didn't manage yet to explain, among several other controversial aspects, not even why a new, Heavy Mechanism to which it wanted to submit Budapest, couldn't even be checked by an EU Court...

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Almost all the Votes revealed a crystal-clear Division of EU Parliament, with generaly more MEPs voting Against, Abstaining or Not even Participating at the votes, than those who supported that controversial Resolution : F.ex., among 765 MEPs, often only about 365 voted in favour, while almost 337 voted against, 8 abstained, and more than 60 (i.e. a Total of more than 400 MEPs !) did not even participate.....

The strong Opposition to the Tavares' Report was mainly led by the Groups of ChistianDemocrats/EPP, the Conservatives/Reformists (ECR), the Freedom and Democracy group (EFD), almost all "Non-Aligned"é/Independent MEPS, and even most among the Leftist MEPs !...
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- Replying to 2 "EuroFora"s questions, during a subsequent Press Conference in Strasbourg, EU Parliament's Rapporteur, Rui Tavares, a "Green" MEP from Portugal described, inter alia, a "Mechanism" composed of a "Trialogue" with EU Commission, EU Parliament and EU Council representatives, added to an "Alarm Agenda" process,  but also to the creation of a brand-new body, initially due to be called "Copenhagen High-Level Group", etc, due to be equiped with quite extensive Competences on sensitive issues, but without having been agreed in any EU Treaty reform, as Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban denounced yesterday.

+ What seems even more important, at least from a Legal and practical point of view, is that Tavares found it apparently Difficult to give a satisfactory and clear rePly to a  2nd "EuroFora"s Question about the existence, of absence, at least of some efficient Checks and Balances by any Independent Court :

-  "EuroFora"s complementary  Question raised the specific issue of Hungarian rime Minister Victor Orban's critical remark, yesterday, about the need, at least, "for a kind of Court : Be it f.ex. the Luxembourg (EU) Court (of Justice) or another Institution, i.e. an Independent Body, to be able to Check the use of this (proposed EU) Mechanism", "as a matter of General Principle".

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- "No, We already have a Court in the EU, which is EU's Court of Justice", Tavares limited himself to repeat, but without explaining what Role the ECJ could play in these cases..

+ "We (MEPs) are not behaving as a Court, but doing what a Parliament should do", he simply added.

- "The Copenhagen High-Level Group that we already refered to (Comp. Supra), is due more to Watch on us (EU Institutions), than to watch on Individual (EU) Member States' Governments", he went on to say. What it would do is to see that we (EU Paliament) are not going Too Far, or Not Far Enough, in any individual case", he tried to explain.

- "They would make sure that we (EU Parliament and/or EU Commission) are abiding by the (EU) Treaties", Tavares said, (apparently touching there to issues which sould, normally, be Checked, precisely by the ECJ in Luxembourg)....

... "And they would make also Recommendations for the Future. Because, of course, everybody recognizes that the EU is not yet perfect now, it was certainly not perfect in the Past", as he said.

+ "We need to have this kind of Non-Political Body ; It will be composed of Members of (National) Constitutional Courts, Members of the Supreme Courts, Jurists of Recognized Independence, Competence, and with High Prestige among the other Peers, who can provide the kind of Normative "Judgements" that we have from the (CoE's) Venice Commission, for instance, and give us Recommendations for the Future", he concluded, (still remaining without any convincing explanation for the Absence of any  visible independent Court guarantee).....                                       
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=> This probably incited also another Journalist to practically ask Tavares the reason for his insistance to almost "Clone", in that way, COE's already existing "Venice" Commission :

    - Tavares replied that, - "We (MEPs) highly respect (CoE's) Venice Commission, and we have already used its work" in the Past. .. "It is a very important Help".
- But "the CoE is a Differend Institution, .. it has more than 40 Member States (47), including many that are Not EU Members, not even Candidates to become EU Members", while, in addition, "the EU aspires at the Higher Standards", Tavares replied.

    + Moreover, "we (EU) have a more demanding Legal Base on Fundamental Rights, since the (EU) Lisbon Treaty", so that a landmark EU Parliament's Report drafted by MEP Kinga Gal on 2010, even speaks about "a New Architecture",  for Fundamental Rights and Rule of Law, after the Lisbon Treaty, etc., but we (EU) are not yet fully Equiped in order to ensure that these Values are concretely materialized", he reminded. So, "our proposals (Comp. Supra), are the 1st concrete Steps in order for the EU to get equiped with what it needs.

    Thus, the real problem is elsewhere : EU Council is not dirfectly elected, and EU Commission not even indirectly... So, EU Institutions' Democratic Legitimacy needs to be completed, by advancing to the road of European Democracy, he added, accepting, in principle, "Hungarian MEPs' criticism", when they told us (EU Institutions) that "you are not yet Democratic enough" : That's true, and it has to change, EU Parliament's Rappporteur concluded.

    But Tavares obviously didn't manage to explain why such important Changes, astonishingly made here only in a Report concerning .. Hungary, and nobody else among EU's 27 Member States, shouldn't be made, as usual, through an Official, contradictory and Transparent collective and inclusive process of "Democratic Reforms" at the existing EU Treaty, as Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban has already wondered, since his critical statements, yesterday in Strasbourg...

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Meanwhile, MEP Manfred Weber, Vice-Chairman of the biggest Group in EU Parliament : that of ChristianDemocrats/EPP Group. strongly criticized Tavares' Report on Hungary, as "a wish list of the ... Leftist  parties who aim to impose their own political agenda on Hungary", while, in fact, "EU Parliament has no competence to act as a tribunal and tell people how they have to live”, "nor  any right to interfere in issues such as defining Marriage  and references to Christianity in (a National) Constitution. These belong solely to national competence. The dozens of ....recommendations to the Hungarian Parliament and the setting-up of a monitoring procedure to assess their implementation, have no legal basis and are totally unacceptable. The EU Parliament must not turn itself into a Big Brother"

“It is the European Commission- as the Guardian of the Treaties - which has the competence to objectively assess the compatibility of national legislation with EU laws. The EPP Group supports the Commission’s findings and welcomes the fact that the Hungarian Government is delivering the EC’s appeals as confirmed by José Manuel Barroso yesterday”, added Manfred Weber.
 

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