Hungary has fulfilled all the European Commission's requests regarding the reform of the Hungarian judiciary, which are in the country's interests and do not cause any difficulties for Hungarians, and is therefore waiting for the EU funds it is entitled to, the justice minister said in Brussels on Monday.
Bence Tuzson told Hungarian journalists during the break of the meeting of the justice ministers of the EU Member States: since Hungary has fulfilled all the EU's requests, it considers the EU's discussions on judicial reform to be closed.
"We have answered all the questions and fulfilled all the demands necessary for the EU funds to be released. We are now waiting to see how the commission will decide in this regard, and we are waiting for the EU funds to arrive in Hungary," said the Minister of Justice.
He said that "of course," Hungary had only complied with requests that were not contrary to its interests. From now on, there are no further questions or requests that Hungary has not fulfilled 100 percent, he added.
Bence Tuzson said that Hungary's first and most crucial issue is to preserve its sovereignty and, from a judicial perspective, to ensure its competitiveness.
In addition to Hungary, it is also essential to guarantee the competitiveness of the European Union since, in the recent period, both the US and China are gaining an advantage in this area, which could result in a severe lag to Europe by 2030, he said.
In connection to ensuring competitiveness, the Minister of Justice mentioned the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). He said it is necessary to examine whether the regulation does not cause too much of a burden on small and medium-sized enterprises.
He pointed out that it is a severe business disadvantage for Hungary and the European Union if large technology companies know more about people than a country knows about its own citizens.
Bence Tuzson said that the cooperation between Hungary and the European Public Prosecutor's Office is good, but as he pointed out, it is a question of sovereignty who has the investigative powers and who can order an investigation in Hungary. He underlined that it would mean losing a significant part of its sovereignty if Hungary were to hand over this right.
Finally, the Minister of Justice called it regrettable that most EU countries treat the issue of internal security separately from illegal migration.
"We Hungarians are convinced that the two issues are linked, and there are now clear signs of this. The fact that terrorist acts can occur in Europe and become regular in certain countries is clearly connected to the issue of illegal migration," he said.
The measures of the European Union are not a solution to this problem. If it continues like this and the EU does not find an effective solution to these issues but instead deals with pseudo-issues such as the rule of law, it will cause problems for the operation of the EU in the long term - added Bence Tuzson.
Source: MTI-Hungarian News Agency
