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