EESC Fundamental Rights and Rule of Law Group concludes a visit to Hungary

On 23-24 June 2025, the Fundamental Rights and Rule of Law (FRRL) Group of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) concluded a two-day visit to Budapest.

This visit gave the opportunity to the group of six EESC Members to hear civil society representatives about key trends in Hungary concerning fundamental rights of social partners, freedoms of association and assembly, freedom of expression (including media freedom), the right to non-discrimination, and the rule of law.

Participants in the discussions particularly highlighted:

• Obstacles to collection of union dues and strike, poor labour inspection, weak social partners;
• Systemic attacks on CSOs, proliferation of GONGOs, a draft "transparency" bill threaten CSO survival, bans limiting the right to assembly, use of face recognition against protestors;
• Omnipresent state propaganda, state advertising fund government controlled media, the "transparency" bill targets journalists too, Pegasus spyware was used against journalists;
• Hate campaigns against LGBTIQ+, migrant, and women's organisations, institutional betrayal of victims of discrimination and violence, no funding, Roma organisations almost extinct.
• State capture by an oligarchy, systemic corruption, lack of transparency, private equity funds offshore, a hybrid justice system, lack of judicial independence, election laws changes to favour ruling party, privacy violations. 

The EESC delegation also discussed with the authorities of Hungary. Regrettably, this meeting happened at the beginning of the visit, preventing the delegation from immediately relaying the concerns raised by participants during the visit. 

A report will be issued in the coming months. 

The visit was the second one of the FRRL Group to Hungary, following a visit in 29-30 April 2019 (report).

Background

The EESC established in 2018 a Group on Fundamental Rights and the Rule of Law (FRRL Group), which is tasked to provide a forum for European civil society organisations to meet and discuss fundamental rights, democracy and the rule of law. The FRRL Group promotes respect for the European values listed in Article 2 TEU by raising awareness of and assessing the state of play of these values in the Member States and allowing for the exchange of good practices. To this end, the FRRL Group hosts hearings, conferences, and carries out country visits with the aim of identifying trends in Europe concerning fundamental rights and the rule of law, inasmuch as they develop in national contexts.

 Country visit reports are issued along with the observations of the authorities, a few months after the visits (they can be accessed here). The visit to Hungary is part of the second cycle of visits of the FRRL Group to all EU Member States. The Report synthesising the first cycle of country visits led in 2018-2019,  2020-2021, 2022  and 2023-2024 are available. 

For more information about the EESC FRRL Group methodology, see this document. 

The delegation of the FRRL Group to Hungary was composed of:

• Jörg Freiherr Frank Von Fürstenwerth (GRI, DE)
• Diana Indjova (GRIII, BG)
• Christian Bäumler (GRII, DE)
• Katrina Leitane (GRIII, LT)
• Paul Soete (GRI, BE)
• José Antonio Moreno Díaz (GRII, ES)