Hungary calls EU rule of law report 'absurd and false'

BUDAPEST: Hungary's justice minister on Wednesday called an EU report on the rule of law "absurd and false" while blasting its sources as "biased and non-transparent".

The annual report raised "serious concerns" about judicial independence in Hungary as well as in Poland -- an assessment Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga dismissed.

"The Commission's Rule of Law Report is absurd and false. It cannot serve as a basis for any further discussion on rule of law in the European Union," Varga said in a statement posted on Facebook.

The commission's report comes as EU leaders prepare for a summit on Thursday and Friday where the row may become a key sticking point. Hungary has threatened to block the EU's proposed coronavirus recovery plan if it comes with conditions on the rule of law.

"The choice of sources in the report is biased and non-transparent," Varga said, adding that the report included civil society organisations that had received funding from the Open Society Foundations of Hungary-born US philanthropist George Soros.

The billionaire supporter of liberal causes was the target of a sustained government-led campaign, labelled anti-Semitic by critics. The Central European University, which Soros helped found, shifted operations away from Budapest in 2018.

The report, Varga said, "is written by organisations from a centrally financed international network engaged in a coordinated political campaign against Hungary".

Addressing concerns over media freedom in Hungary, Varga insisted that "Hungary is one of the few Member States where genuine pluralism prevails in the media and ideological debates as well as in the general opinion", adding that this contrasted "to the Western European media landscape massively dominated by leftist and liberal outlets".