The position of Fidesz - Hungarian Civic Union on the political attacks directed against the Hungarian financial authority

Dátum: 2004-01-23 12:24:00, eredeti URL: http://archiv.fidesz.hu/index.php?Cikk=19332
KCMDB-be feltöltve: 2024-05-04 19:26:36.768160, Feltöltő: fidesz_hu_scraper_v2

As we have repeatedly informed you in our previous papers in the past months, a routine investigation into an unlawful acquisition attempt in a chemical firm in June uncovered a long history and a complex array of financial crimes at Hungarian commercial banks, which has come to involve public money after the Medgyessy-government took office last year. Evidence indicate the implication of MSZP-related business circles and key members of the current government, an assumption further reinforced by the obvious determination of the cabinet to remove the head of the independent financial authority investigating the affair.

Following months of intensive intimidation and verbal attacks by socialist politicians against the president of the Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority (PSZÁF), the cabinet finally decided, late October, to get rid of Mr Szász by submitting an amendment to Parliament, on "restructuring" the Authority's leadership. Under the amendment, the PSZÁF-president, hitherto elected by Parliament and enjoying full operational independence, will be appointed by the prime minister himself. The amendment was passed by the coalition majority in Parliament on 15 December 2003. Fidesz - Hungarian Civic Union immediately appealed to the Constitutional Court in order that "Lex Szász" be repealed and the independence of PSZÁF be restored.

By carrying out the amendment of the related Act, the government has in fact tailored the structure of an independent agency to its own political goals, in order to be able to remove the person in charge of investigations into dubious dealings, uncomfortable for the current government. (The best proof for this assumption is that the government had been searching for legal arguments to back up the dismissal of Mr Szász. In the absence of such arguments, they chose to modify the rules.) The onslaught against PSZÁF is an indicator of the power abuse and the lack of respect for democratic rules on behalf of the Hungarian socialists. It is a part of a wider pattern of operations against independent agencies, as highlighted by similar attacks against the Prosecutor General, the courts, and the Hungarian National Bank.

The amendment was passed despite wide-ranging international protests. In a letter addressed to the Hungarian finance minister in early December, Mr Frits Bolkestein, EU Commissioner responsible for Internal Market, declared that "as a result of the amendment, the financial authority's independence was put in doubt." The President of the European Central Bank, Mr Jean-Claude Trichet, was even more outright in his recent letter addressed to the finance minister, warning that "the amendment was hardly compatible with EU and other international standards." These statements followed comments by Mr Elmar Brok, President of the Foreign Relations Committee of the European Parliament, by the Presidency and the Parliamentary Group of the European People's Party, as well as by high-ranking OECD-officials, all expressing serious concerns regarding the proposed amendment. German MEP Michael Gahler, member of the Foreign Relations Committee of the European Parliament, is preparing to address a question to the European Commission on the issue.

Budapest, 15 January 2004