On 18 June the Sovereignty Protection Office asked 62 questions from Transparency International Hungary in a six-page letter in the framework of a comprehensive investigation. Transparency International Hungary responded to this letter on 8th July 2024.
Transparency International Hungary is convinced that several provisions of the Sovereignty Protection Act are incompatible with the Fundamental Law and violate fundamental rights such as the right to freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial and the right to an effective legal remedy. For this reason, Transparency International Hungary has filed a constitutional complaint on 19th June and asked the Constitutional Court to annul the provisions concerned with retroactive effect. We hold that the establishment and operation of the Sovereignty Protection Office as well as its present procedure also violate the Fundamental Law.
We hope that our response helps to dispel the ambiguity regarding our operations as well as the ambiguity about the nature and substance of the legal requirements applicable to civil society organisations. Transparency International Hungary emphasised that information on the results of our activities as well as all the information on the general operation of the organisation and its finances are publicly available on our website and in our annual reports. We reminded that contracts with our donors, accounts and reports and especially data relating to our clients are only accessible by the parties involved and by authorities properly empowered by the laws. The Sovereignty Protection Office does not have any relevant legal mandate which would enable such access. On numerous occasions we pointed to the fact that certain questions revealed unprofessional and unrealistic assumptions on behalf of the Sovereignty Protection Office or were simply meaningless.
The response by Transparency International Hungary to the inquiry of the Sovereignty Protection Office can be found here, our complaint to the Constitutional Court is available here, while the inquiry of the Sovereignty Protection Office with the 62 questions is accessible here.
