On May 9, 2019, the General Assembly of the European Association of Judges (EAJ) in Copenhagen adopted a report condemning the Hungarian jurisdiction. The National Office for the Judiciary (NOJ) turned to the President of the EAJ because of the false allegations, factual and legal errors included in the report. 

The NOJ highlighted the unfortunate fact that so far they have not received a satisfactory response to whether the monitoring proceedings were launched lawfully. The Hungarian Judicial Association (MABIE) has consistently denied initiating the proceedings. And this legal uncertainty was not clarified at the reception of the EAJ delegation because the MABIE delegate was not present at the meeting. 

The NOJ was first informed about the adopted report from the media, so the Office did not have a chance to make any comments on it. This, in turn, does not comply with the European principles that have been repeatedly emphasized in the report and the principle of a fair procedure. 

The NOJ also pointed out that the report contains many false allegations which have nothing to do with reality. This is partly due to the lack of knowing the relavant law, partly to one-sided conveyance of the opinion of the interviewed persons, and partly to factual errors. These mistakes - at least partly - could have been avoided if the commission  took seriously the principle of listening also to the other party.

The President of the NOJ stressed: we assume that judges are able and willing to act impartially in a litigation case, they consider the relevant law as a starting point, assess the related facts and evidence in order to form an opinion on the facts of the case. A well-founded and objective decision can only be made by deliberating these facts and evidence. It is unfortunate that the EAJ procedure failed to meet these European standards this time.