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Fidesz-KDNP Delegation to the European Parliament addressed questions for written answer to Věra Jourová in connection with the scandal surrounding the revelation of Anna Donáth

2020. 10. 14.

The Fidesz-KDNP Delegation to the European Parliament wrote a letter and addressed questions for written answer to Věra Jourová, Vice-President of the European Commission, in connection with the scandal that erupted over the revelation of Anna Donáth.

The head of the Fidesz-KDNP Delegation to the European Parliament, MEP Tamás Deutsch, on behalf of the Hungarian delegation of the EPP, wrote a letter and addressed questions to Věra Jourová, Member of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, in connection with a scandal regarding a video released over the weekend. In the video, Anna Donáth, MEP of Momentum, speaks proudly that she has been in constant consultation withJourová on Hungarian rule of law issues, saying “she spoke to Věra Jourová on the phone every three days”. Just a few days before the release of the video, Anna Donáth, in a public debate with the Hungarian Minister of Justice, vehemently denied that she regularly consulted with Věra Jourová about the so-called rule of law issues relating to Hungary and called it a conspiracy theory. After the outbreak of the scandal over her revelation, Donáth stated in a Facebook post that it was not she who called Jourová, but the Commissioner who had asked for her opinion as a colleague from Renew Europe on several occasions about the rule of law in Hungary.

In the letter, Tamás Deutsch recalls that after Donáth’s revelation and the outbreak of the scandal as well as the explanation by the representative of Momentum, Jourová stated on 9 October in the Czech newspaper Hospodárske noviny that she had no direct contact with the Hungarian opposition and only consulted with the organization of journalists. However, this contradicts all of the statements of Anna Donáth.

According to Deutsch, Anna Donáth’s statements in the video clearly seem to prove the widespread and long-held assumption that EU officials and institutions are deliberately misled and manipulated by the politicians of theMomentum Movement and other members of the Hungarian left in the European Parliament with false and one-sided information about the situation in Hungary. The scandal also raises new questions about the European Commission’s working methods — on the one hand, how the institution collects information on events in the Member States and, on the other hand, how the unilateral and biased political practice of consultations followed by Věra Jourová can be reconciled with the strict rules on the objective and impartial work of European Commissioners.

The Fidesz-KDNP group is therefore waiting for an answer from Věra Jourová. Did she really consult regularly with the left-wing politician Anna Donáth about Hungary? Did the Commissioner, in fact, initiate consultations with her colleague from Renew Europe, Anna Donáth? Why has she never asked for the opinion of pro-government MEPs on issues related to Hungary? How can she reconcile her regular informal consultations with the Hungarian left-wing opposition with the fact that she should perform her work in a neutral and objective manner in accordance with the regulations governing her work as a Commissioner?