01/10/2025 Session
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has expressed serious concern at Hungary’s lack of progress on democracy, human rights and the rule of law, pointing to a “worsening situation in certain areas”.
Hungary has been under the Assembly’s monitoring procedure since 2022. It is one of ten Council of Europe member states subject to the procedure, which helps them to fulfil their promises to uphold the Organisation’s values and standards.
In a resolution based on a report by Eerik-Niiles Kross (Estonia, ALDE) and George Papandreou (Greece, SOC), the Assembly said there had been a “weakening of checks and balances”, as well as the “instrumentalisation” of constitutional norms and laws to cement the political preferences of the ruling party.
The parliamentarians pointed to concerns over the law-making process, urging the Hungarian authorities to end the “state of danger” special legal order which enabled them to override ordinary laws with emergency decrees.
Meanwhile Hungary’s electoral framework “does not ensure a level playing field conducive to fair elections”, while successive reforms since then have only amplified the distortion between the number of votes received and the number of mandates granted, favouring dominant parties. The Assembly called for a “a complete overhaul of the electoral legislation after the 2026 elections”.
The lack of political will to tackle high-level corruption was “deeply disturbing”, it added, while there continue to be concerns about the lack of media pluralism in Hungary and the succession of measures aimed at silencing civil society and independent media.
The Assembly also welcomed the adoption of the 2023 legislative reform that improved the independence of the judiciary and strengthened the self-governance of the judicial system.