The Council of Europe’s Venice Commission released an opinion Tuesday criticizing Hungary’s recent sovereignty protection law as a potential threat to free discourse. In light of its analysis, the Venice Commission ultimately recommended that the law be repealed.
The opinion centers around Hungary’s Act LXXXVIII on the Protection of National Sovereignty, adopted in December 2023. Hungary’s national assembly passed the law in response to an alleged increase in the frequency of “illegal attacks on the sovereignty of Hungary.” It established the “Sovereignty Protection Office,” an independent state administrative body authorized to investigate activities “aimed at influencing democratic discourse and state and social decision-making processes” conducted on behalf of the interests of other states, organizations, or natural persons. The law also prohibits the use of foreign funds in election campaigns.
The Venice Commission affirmed Hungary’s concerns of “foreign funding or other influence” as a “valid issue for national constitutional authorities.” However, it found that the law’s sweeping scope encompasses not only the electoral context but also “political activity in a broader sense and campaigns for social change.” According to the opinion:
[Such a broad approach] can interfere with the privacy of any legal or natural entity and engage in naming and shaming of this entity without being subject to any control or review mechanism. Thus, rather than making “the various electoral and social decision-making processes transparent,” the [law] risks having a chilling effect on the free and democratic discussion in the Hungarian society.
The opinion also calls attention to the fact that the law was passed only three weeks after Parliament received its text. As a result, the Venice Commission asserts that the process was procedurally “rushed,” as there was little time for parliamentary and public debate on the law’s content before its adoption.
In addition to urging Hungary to repeal the law, the Venice Commission recommended more clearly defining “foreign support” to account for various kinds of funding streams and political parties that operate on an international scale. It also recommended narrowly defining the prohibited activities in Hungary’s Act on Election Procedure and retitling the new article of the Criminal Code to better capture its content.
The Venice Commission is not the first entity to disapprove of Hungary’s new sovereignty law. Recently, the European Commission launched legal proceedings against Hungary over the law, alleging that it violates various provisions of EU law. Additionally, Human Rights Watch published a report condemning the law for its censoring effects on civil society organizations and independent media.
