Tuzson: Attacks on sovereignty more and more open
Speaking at the roundtable entitled Protection of our Sovereignty, Illusion or Reality, Tuzson said sovereignty must be protected as it was “under constant attack in today’s rapidly changing world”.
He said the European Union was created to prevent individual states from asserting their will on each other either directly or indirectly, but nowadays EU protection guarantees were being undermined or eradicated.
Also, EU institutions were broadening their powers, he said, citing the issue of migration. More and more institutional decisions were biased, and this could be seen in reports on the rule of law used to exert political pressure on countries such as Hungary, he added.
This situation must be monitored, Tuzson said, explaining why Hungary’s sovereignty protection office had been established. Any interference into the affairs of the office was “political interference”, he added.
The justice ministry, he said, is now working on provisions in connection with “war propaganda”, and will soon submit them to the government.
Tamas Lanczi, the sovereignty protection office’s head, said there was a “grey zone” of political pressure exerted by bodies and networks operating not only in Hungary and the EU but also in the US, striving to influence political discourse and the exercise of public power.
He said that though the law on the protection of sovereignty was essentially a “good” one, new rules were needed to increase transparency, and he said a new category, the “political pressure body”, would be added to its defensive remit.
Also, he said legislation in relation to foreign fundraising sites should be amended as sources of unclear origin could be funnelled through them, and this loophole should be closed, Lanczi said.
Meanwhile, he said some organisations flatly refused to cooperate with the office, adding that as soon as Transparency International was under investigation, the US government had immediately intervened.
Lanczi also referred “incomprehensible” statements regarding the office made by the Venice Commission.
