News

EU inquiry shall be launched into the Beneš decrees

2021. 01. 26.

After eight years, the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions (PETI) has again put two petitions related to the Beneš decrees on the agenda. At the meeting, MEP Loránt Vincze (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania) and MEP Ádám Kósa (Fidesz) spoke for the sake of the Hungarians in Slovakia, and against the violations of the Beneš decrees that had plagued them for seventy years.

MEP Kósa emphasized: “The argument that the decrees are only historical documents is not valid. In the case of Bosits vs. Slovakia in May 2020, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg pronounced in favour of the Hungarian side and stated that confiscation of assets and property is still taking place in Slovakia under the Beneš decrees”. According to Kósa, this situation is unacceptable in the 21st century. All legislation based on the principle of collective guilt must be resolutely opposed. MEPs therefore call on the European Commission to take a firm stand against the disenfranchisement of the Beneš decrees and call on the European Parliament to organize a fact-finding visit to Slovakia as soon as possible.

In his remarks, MEP Loránt Vincze refuted the European Commission’s position that the decrees are historical documents. “It’s just a seemingly historic body of law, since the events of recent months, such as the attempted confiscation of property by a state authority in the construction of the D4 motorway and the Bosits case, prove that some decrees still have legal effect today. The abolition of the Beneš decrees is, in particular, a historical debt of Slovakia, but the European Union, which protects fundamental rights and condemns all forms of discrimination, also has a duty to speak out and condemn the deprivation of Hungarians in Slovakia”, highlighted MEP Vincze.

The European Commission must hold all Member States accountable to rule of law standards, as well as to fundamental human rights such as the right to property, without exception. Therefore, the PETI Committee called on the European Commission to carry out an in-depth investigation into the Beneš decrees.

Background: The Beneš decrees are documents establishing Czechoslovak statehood after the Second World War, which were passed by the former President of the Republic, Beneš, in order to create a nation state. 13 out of more than a hundred resolutions recorded the collective guilt of Germans and Hungarians living in the country and deprived those belonging to the two communities of their basic civil rights and property. The petition submitted by Imre Juhász in 2012 objects to the decision adopted by the Slovak Parliament in 2007 confirming the inviolability of the decrees. The second petitioner (Miklós Práznovszky) draws attention to human rights issues as well as the shortcomings of the Slovak compensation system in connection with the decrees.