The European Commission for Democracy through Law (the “Venice Commission”) today adopted an opinion clarifying its preliminary opinion on the previous Draft Law on the Transparency of Organisations Receiving Support from Abroad of Hungary.
In the clarification, the Council of Europe expert body expressed the view that the law, passed this week, only partly satisfies the preliminary opinion’s main recommendations.
The Venice Commission praised the removal of provision in the law for the automatic sanction of "dissolution" for non respect by an association of obligations imposed by the law, notably the failure to report foreign funding beyond a certain annual threshold.
It again acknowledged that the aim of ensuring transparency of civil society organisations in order to prevent undue foreign political influence, money laundering and terrorism-financing is, in principle, legitimate.
