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Category: Press

Press release from Benedek Jávor about the suspension of EU funds

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The Hungarian government now acts as if the European Commission’s decision on the suspension of EU funds was a surprise. There is, however, no reason to be surprised: the documents foreshadowing this recent development have long been made accessible. During this time action could have easily been taken to prevent such a decision; however, the government prefers a deeply corrupt procurement system over saving EU funds. What is more is that the present decision could be followed by many more: besides the operative projects now affected by the decision there are at least half a dozen similar projects that received the same evaluation from the Commission. Without a radical alteration in the system, even planned future projects are in jeopardy. It is high time that Viktor Orbán and János Lázár decided whether it is the funding of oligarchs or the fate of the country that matters more to them.

Last December I wrote in my blog about the documents that had been sent by the respective director general of the European Commission to the European Parliament in connection with the supervision of operative programs using EU development funds. This information involved the assessment of the management of all the operative programs of all EU Member States. As I pointed out in my blog post Hungary was among the worst in all examined areas. These data also showed that the Commission not only criticized the programs, but also deemed the provision of information by the Hungarian authorities unreliable.

It was very clear from all these data that the suspension of funds was about to happen. What was predictable now turned into reality. Now at the end of the fifth year of the Orbán-regime, the government’s communication pointing the finger on former governments when talking about the inherited tender-evaluation system, is completely discredited. This is also because the Hungarian management of EU development funds was completely reorganized by the 1st of January, 2014, in that it was assimilated partly into different departments and partly into the Prime Minister’s office. What also becomes clear from the information I provided in December is that the Commission brings its decision based on data received from annual audit records and from regularly updated continuous monitoring. In the current case the decision was probably based on audit records from 2013 and 2014. There is no doubt about whose responsibility this is. What is more is that the current decision can be followed by others: besides the operative projects now affected by the decision there are at least half a dozen similar projects that received the same evaluation from the Commission – these can also be suspended increasing the amount of money lost. Without a radical alteration in the system, even planned future projects are in jeopardy.

Hungary cannot afford to lose such an amount of funds due to the irregular selection of winning tenders. The current suspension affects 700 billion Forints and, according to estimations, will only become available again after paying a sanction mounting up to about 10% of this amount. If we add the development funds lost after the suspension of the Norwegian funds as a result of the government’s attack on the civil sector, the loss goes up as high as 100 billion Forints. It is high time that Viktor Orbán and János Lázár decided whether it is the funding of oligarchs or the fate of the country that matters more to them.

Brussels-Budapest, April 16, 2015
Benedek Jávor MEP

 

A war of independence for 5 million Forints a day – not with tax-payers’ money!

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According to Dialogue for Hungary, the Orbán-family and the Fidesz-clientele should be the ones to pay the sanctions laid out by the European Union after the government was unwilling to implement the EU’s energy efficiency directive into the Hungarian law. While increasing energy efficiency serves everyone’s interest, the lack of it only benefits nuclear lobbying and various gas traders.

The European Commission has decided to turn to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg because Hungary still has not implemented the energy efficiency directive in its internal legislature. This is the law that prescribes an annual energy renewal at 3% of the public institutions; in addition, it would bind energy providers to reach a 1.5% of new energy-savings, primarily by supporting the energy efficiency of households.

The Orbán-cabinet, however, does not at all want households to use less energy. Energy efficiency is out of the question: just now each and every item that would help to lessen energy-use is being wiped out of the national energy strategy. The government and its close economic clientele (from MET – the Hungarian Energy Association – owned by the friends of Viktor Orbán to Elios belonging to István Tiborcz, Mr. Orbán’s son in law) want nuclear power plants and Russian gas, as well as fast-consuming households.

Dialogue for Hungary believes that it would be in the best interest of the country to spend the given resources on energy efficiency investments, keeping to EU regulations, instead of nuclear power plants and gas pipelines. Instead of Brussels, the war of independence should be fought against Fidesz-friendly oligarchs with interests in the energy business; however, unfortunately we cannot count on the Hungarian government in this respect.

27th of March, 2015
Brussels-Budapest

Benedek Jávor, Member of the European Parliament

Dialogue for Hungary agrees with Attila Péterfalvi: too much secrecy about Paks

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Dialogue for Hungary welcomes the opinion of Attila Péterfalvi, head of the data protection authority, that rejects the secrecy of the Paks-law: the green party believes that there are too many secrets surrounding the investment. We call on the government to revise its unsustainable stance and we filed a complaint to the European Commission, as the exclusion of publicity violates EU law as well.

In his opinion Attila Péterfalvi made it clear that the Paks law, affecting all data and preparatory documents and denying the access to public data is not compliant with the Hungarian legislation’s regulations on the publicity of public money and public data. According to Dialogue for Hungary the Orbán government, too, will have to take steps at this point. If even members from the innermost circle of trust of the government, as Péterfalvi, say that the secrecy is indefensible, it means that the law is not viable and will sooner or later fail at some higher level of our juristic system.

Another thing that became clear at the hearing about the expansion project in the European Parliament is that the European Commission, as well, urges as much transparency as possible. The new developments are shameful both for the government that proposed, and to János Áder, who as President of Hungary, signed the law. They both ignored the content of our fundamental laws and EU legislation on the publicity of public data. It is high time for the supervision of the law that contradicts both Hungarian and European legislation. Dialogue for Hungary seeks to quicken this procedure through its own means; therefore, we filed a complaint to the European Commission about the law that goes against EU directives.

Benedek Jávor, Member of the European Parliament

March 19, 2015
Brussels-Budapest

EU summit; Flagship energy union project risks being stillborn

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EU heads of state and government will meet for a summit on Thursday and Friday, with proposals for a European energy union and relations with Russia at the top of the agenda. Ahead of the summit, Greens/EFA co-presidents Rebecca Harms and Philippe Lamberts said:

“The energy union should be a flagship project for Europe over the coming years but there is a real risk it will be stillborn, as EU leaders look set to strip it of any convincing future-oriented approach. Leaked drafts of the ‘conclusions’ to be adopted by heads of state and government indicate the overarching focus is on finding new supply routes for gas and reviving nuclear power, rather than trying to wean us off our damaging dependence on unreliable fossil fuel exporting countries. If the EU wants to get serious about energy security, it should be working together to prioritise energy efficiency and home-grown renewable energy as the first line of defence. Instead, this energy union seems to be placating vested interests in the energy sector.


“Despite 2015 being a make or break year for the international climate negotiations, EU leaders look set to simply kick the can down the road. The clock is ticking quickly down towards the crunch UN climate summit in Paris in December (COP21) but EU governments clearly do not seem to care about adopting a proactive approach to ensure the EU plays a role in securing a positive outcome: an ambitious global agreement to limit warming to below 2 degrees, which is necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change.


“Yet again, EU governments are using the very prominent stage of an EU summit to highlight their disunity on Russia. This division, whether as regards to sanctions or other issues, completely undermines the ability of the EU to help support pluralism and fundamental rights in Russia and to shape an outcome to the crisis in Ukraine in the interest of the Ukrainian people. In terms of the outcome of the Minsk negotiations, it is not yet the moment for the EU to scale down sanctions on Russia. Until there is no control of the Russia-Ukraine border in the Donbass region, there is no stability.”

Press release – Brussels, 18 March 2015 (The Greens,EFA)

Europe is unprepared for Fukushima-level accident (NTW press release)

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Brussels, 11 March 2015 –The Fukushima nuclear disaster began four years ago. Although it was initiated by the great earthquake of East Japan and the tsunami that followed, responsible institutions have failed in recognizing the real risks of the reactors, in implementing appropriate nuclear safety standards and, ultimately, in protecting people. Has Europe taken into account all lessons to be learned from the Fukushima catastrophe? An upcoming NTW report identifies key challenges from the civil society point of view.

4th anniversary of Fukushima – has Europe learned anything?  NTW says no. Emergency preparedness is mostly based on an INES 5 nuclear accident and response plans generally cannot cope with an INES 7 accident, the level of the Chernobyl and Fukushima catastrophes. NTW notes that many regional and local authorities are not really prepared for a nuclear accident. In some cases, it seems that EP&R plans have been drafted a long time ago with poor updating regarding important recent spatial changes (new residential neighbourhoods, shopping malls, medical centres, schools, roads, etc.) and without taking into consideration recent changes in technology (internet, mobile phones, new social media, etc.). NTW notices that even during exercises, the communication and notification lines of the responsible institutions are not entirely working as necessary: contact data are sometimes wrong or out-dated, there is a lack of communication between different concerned administration services and warning messages are sometimes no clear or too late.

The heterogeneity of measures in different countries (like the distribution of iodine tablets, evacuation perimeters and zoning) is a crucial transboundary dimension. This heterogeneity is potentially a source of chaos, loss of credibility and, most importantly, of potential failure to protect the population. “European institutions are now debating a new directive on the radioactive contamination of food and feedstuff after an accident to harmonize norms. The chaos we saw in this respect in the EU after Fukushima should indeed never be repeated. But while safety agencies recognize that an accident can happen in Europe, accepting contamination norms that are twice the one of Fukushima is from public health perspective unacceptable”, said Michèle Rivasi, chair of NTW.

NTW’s assessment makes obvious that the usual top-down approach doesn’t work. This approach, which has been used to date in EP&R, should be changed and should involved local communities and interested civil society organisations to take an action to improve the situation. “EP&R provisions today are resulting from closed door discussions. Citizens and citizens’ organisations should be the principal partners in EP&R since they are the ones who are affected in a nuclear event. We need to encourage sharing of information among people and institutions, and to involve the local population in the development of better provisions and systematic transboundary arrangements”, said Nadja Železnik, chair of WG EP&R from NTW.

NTW urges the European Parliament, the European Commission, national governments, regional bodies and municipalities, together with nuclear operators, to provide access to relevant information and to support participation of interested citizens, citizens’ initiatives and civil society organisations in emergency preparedness and response planning, regardless of their general position on the commercial use of nuclear power.

The report will be published in April 2015 during a presentation in the European Parliament. Please find enclosed its executive summary: NTWexecutiveSummaryEP&R

Paks expansion – Dialogue for Hungary: EU law cannot be sidestepped

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According to Dialogue for Hungary the European Union should not allow Hungary to construct a new Nuclear Power Plant in Paks without taking into account Community law.

Benedek Jávor stated in a press conference in Budapest that according to information in his possession the EUURATOM did not counter-sign  the fuel-supply contract for the new NNP in Paks, because it does not ensure fuel supply diversification.

He remarked that the current blockage of the fuel supply testifies  of the Hungarian government’s politics built on its “mania for secrecy”, not the failure of the expansion project itself.

The politician from Dialogue for Hungary emphasized that Brussels will not stop at this point in connection with the Paks expansion, rather, it will validate European law to its entirety. This means that there will be more obstacles to make the investment procedure more difficult: the Competition Commissioner of the EU will launch an investigation based on suspicions of prohibited state aid, whereas the Commissioner responsible for the internal market will investigate the lack of an international tender; in addition, a cartel procedure has already been initiated in connection with the issue, said Benedek Jávor, according to whom the grounds for these investigations are sound; therefore, the realization of the expansion of the Paks power plants, based on the current form of contracts, is impossible.

Zoltán Kovács, the government’s spokesman, said on Friday that after intensive consultations the government expects to finalize the contracts on the transportation of fuel elements in connection with the expansion within a few weeks, taking into account the remarks of the Euratom. The spokesperson called the article of the British business paper, Financial Times false and completely misleading, which was based information about European Union’s aim to shut down the execution of the twelve-billion-euro-contract made with Russia on the expansion of the Paks power plant.

 

March 13, 2015
Budapest

Source: MTI

European Parliament Intergroup on Integrity, transparency, corruption and organised crime is disappointed with the EIB’s new transparency policy

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The European Parliament Intergroup on Integrity, transparency, corruption and organised crime (ITCO) is disappointed with the new transparency policy of the European Investment Bank, which is weaker than its original policy. This is particularly worrisome as it happens on the eve of the implementation of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), in which the EIB plays a crucial role.

The intergroup acknowledges that improvements have been made since the first draft of the new transparency policy was published in July. De Jong: ”Contrary to the original proposal, the EIB now admits that Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 on access to documents applies to documents relating to its administrative tasks. Any other solution would have been a clear violation of Art.15 TEU. However, a lot of problematic issues still remain unsolved.”

A serious flaw in the new transparency policy is the vagueness that surrounds the publication of information on EIB projects. Still not all projects have to be published on the website. De Jong: ”It is in the interest of the EIB itself to inform citizens about its projects, since they often have a direct impact on society. Mere summaries do not suffice. Moreover, whenever there are indications that projects do not deliver value for money, or worse, that there have been irregularities, such as fraud, corruption or abuse of the projects for tax evasion, citizens want to have full access to the documents concerned. Cases of maladministration and corruption should not be covered-up, more secrecy is not what people want.”

Elly Schlein, co-president of the Intergroup on ITCO adds: ”it is important that more people have access to information. With the EFSI about to start, the EIB cannot choose for a less transparent policy. People have a right of information concerning all activities of the EIB, including the support to companies operating in the developing countries”.

 The intergroup is committed to address the problems raised by this new policy. De Jong: ”we will certainly address this issue in the context of EFSI, but also as part of the budget discharge of the EIB in the Budgetary Control Committee. Moreover, we shall write a letter to the board of directors of the EIB explaining in detail which articles of the new transparency policy of the EIB have to be amended. We trust that the EIB will not ignore our requests.”

12.03.2015

The bureau of the intergroup on integrity, transparency, corruption and organised crime
Dennis de Jong (co-president)
Elly Schlein (co-president)
Ana Gomes
Monica Macovei
Benedek Jávor
Marian Harkin
Ignazio Corrao
Timothy Kirkhope

Transparency and anti-corruption

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EU rules on whistleblower protection must be prioritised

The European Parliament today adopted a report on the fight against fraud. The report included a clear call on the European Commission to bring forward a legislative proposal on the protection of whistleblowers. After the vote, Green transparency spokesperson Benedek Javor said:

DPP_0268“It is high time that whistleblowers were guaranteed protection across Europe. MEPs today delivered a clear message to the EU Commission that it must propose legislation to this end and stop stalling. Whistleblowers play a hugely important role in a democracy, ensuring vital information in the public interest is brought to light, and they deserve protection for fulfilling this role. The LuxLeaks case is just the latest example of this. The precariousness of whistleblowing must end.

“The report also set out a number of other important recommendations to tackle fraud and corruption in the EU, including VAT fraud. It includes a call to finally establish a European public prosecutor’s office to ensure the EU has the resources to properly investigate and clamp down on fraud and corruption, notably of EU funds. Tackling fraud with regard to EU funds is crucial for the credibility of the EU funds and member states and the Commission must redouble their efforts to this end.”

Paks secret: Dialogue for Hungary turns to the Commission as President Áder signs the law

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The legal concerns of the data protection authority and law experts were not sufficient for President János Áder to revisit his opinion on the expansion of the power plants: the President of Hungary did not hesitate to sign the law which classifies all information in connection with the investment for 30 years. Dialogue for Hungary turns to the ombudsman to request a revision from the Constitutional Court and we also submit our complaint to the Commission as the law violates European legislation as well.

János Áder’s new image of an environmentalist politician was destroyed before it even evolved after he signed the secret law for the Paks investment. Even though the legislative concerns in connection with the law were already known – among others, due to the declared opinion of the data protection authority –, the loyal servility of Áder towards the Orbán government once again manifested as he signed, without hesitation, the law which harshly violates the right to access public information and environment-related information (that is the constitution and European law as well).

Although European laws allow for the refusal of requests for the release of certain environment-related information, they do also state that “such grounds for refusal must be interpreted restrictively, taking into account in each particular case of the public interest served by disclosure.” General secrecy does not comply with this rules system.

According to Dialogue for Hungary, not even the President of Hungary has rights to pawn the future and leave the dirty laundry of Paks to the upcoming generations; it is sad that we have to remind him of this at the fourth anniversary of the Fukushima tragedy. Dialogue for Hungary turns to the ombudsman and the European Commission for the violation of law: we know that nothing is too costly for Fidesz when it comes to spending public money of 4000 billion Forints; however, even the government has to respect the constitution and international directives.

 

March 11, 2015
Budapest

 

Benedek Jávor, Member of the European Parliament, Dialgoue for Hungary

A call upon the government to release to the public the letter of the Euratom Supply Agency

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Benedek Jávor, Member of the European Parliament, calls upon the Hungarian government to forthwith release to the public the letter of the Euratom Supply Agency. In his opinion Hungarian citizens have a right to know the contents of the Paks agreements just as much as the European institutions.

According to information from the Commission the Euratom Supply Agency has sent its written opinion on the transportation agreement in connection with the fuel elements of the new Paks power plant and which was signed between the Hungarian government and the Russian partner on December 8th, 2014. According to these news, in its opinion the Agency gave voice to some serious criticism. To our knowledge, if we consider the original agreement, the transportation of the fuel elements to Paks would be carried out by the Russian consortium responsible for the construction, although there were news about the possibility of the American Westinghouse’s involvement in the transportation procedure. What we know for certain is that the government has classified all the contracts; therefore, the details of the transportation agreement remain unknown.

On the basis of the Euratom directive, of which Hungary is also a member since its accession to the European Union, the government is not allowed to sign such contracts without the countersignature of the Euratom Supply Agency. This is because the duty of supervising nuclear energy security and supply as well as supervising the adaptation of the EURATOM directive belongs to the Euratom Supply Agency, and as such, it must approve every transportation contract signed with a third party in order for the contract to be valid. This approval is what can now become questionable. As a result, the possible role of Westinghouse in the transportation deals might also be seen in a new light.

March 5th, 2015
Brussels-Budapest