The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has called on Hungary to suspend the parliamentary debate on the draft law on the “Transparency of Organisations receiving Foreign Funding” and the implementation of the Act amending the National Higher Education Act, pending the opinion of experts from the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission.
Approving a resolution based on a report by Mogens Jensen (Denmark, SOC), the Assembly also called on the Hungarian authorities to engage in “open dialogue” with civil society, as well as the Council of Europe and other international organisations, on the two laws.
As regards the NGO law, PACE said it was concerned about the lack of internal public consultation on the draft, the gravity of the sanctions – including the possibility that an NGO could be shut down for non-compliance – and its scope of application, which excludes some NGO such as sports and religious organisations.
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