On September 21st, the Hungarian parliament adopted a new law regarding asylum seekers: the new law allows the police and the army to open fire on migrants in certain situations as long as the shots do not aim to kill. The legislation is the newest provocation from Orban’s government violating once more every single ideal and value that are the foundation of the European project. The EU, sadly, has been passive to the Orban’s government behaviour. We, as political youth organizations, cannot tolerate the violation of numerous statuses from the Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. We turn to European leaders and urge them to take exemplary actions in a short term to not give the impression that they are sitting silent while more policies incompatible with our vision of Europe are passed through.

The EU’s lack of reaction to Orban’s policies sends the signal that different standards apply to Member States. How could we justify that the EU is strong in confronting a country that is not respecting financial obligations as it has been the case for Greece, while it remains silent when a Member State transgresses the fundamental values of our union? No matter what voting power or political affiliation it may have, a Member State that calls into question more than sixty years of European construction cannot act with impunity even by calling upon the principle of subsidiarity.

In this situation we demand/urge:

Mister Jean-Claude JUNCKER, President of the European Commission to state the violation of the Europe’s values by Hungary (art. 2 TEU) and to initiate a sanctioning procedure as stipulated in article 7 of the Treaty of the European Union.

European Heads of State or Government to reaffirm the fundamental values of the EU as written in the Treaties and take exemplary actions against State members that transgress them.

Mister Donald TUSK, President of the European Council to breach this subject during the next Summit. The issue is yet to be discussed and has not been mentioned up until now.

Mister Manfred WEBER, Chairman of the EPP group; Mister Gianni PITTELLA, President of the S&D group; Mister Syed KAMALL, Chairman of the ECR group; Mister Guy VERHOFSTADT, President of the ALDE group; Miss Rebecca HARMS and Mister Philippe LAMBERTS, co-Presidents of the Greens/ALE to tackle the subject in the European Parliament, to take note of the violation of the European values by Hungary (art.2 TEU) and to put pressure on the European Commission so it will react accordingly.

We would like to remind our deep commitment to keep the Hungarian people in the EU. We regret the isolation of the country caused by the Orban’s government policies which have lead to the erection of both political and physical fences such as those built at the Romanian, Serbian and Croatian borders. We also regard the EU as partly responsible for aggravating the situation by not creating a deeper integration and requirements of solidarity amongst the Member States.

Appeal signed by Young Democrats for Europe and two of our organisations : Jeunes Démocrates (France) and Euzko Gaztedi Indarra (Basque Country).

You can find the appeal here