Mr Orbán, it’s time to play by the rules!

The organizing committee of the European Citizens’ Initiative* “Wake up Europe ! Act4democracy” which aims at protecting European democratic values is pleased to announce that the initiative was officially registered by the European Commission on 30 November 2015.

This petition was launched by seven European citizens concerned about the repeated breaches of human rights by Viktor Orbán’s government and by the lack of an appropriate response from the EU to protect its values as defined in Article 2 of the Lisbon Treaty (TEU): human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.

Since 2010, the Hungarian government has repeatedly taken ultra-nationalistic, antidemocratic and xenophobic measures at odds with European values and principles. Members of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe have further condemned its unacceptable criminalization of migrants (and soon to include those people helping them), but also its statements on the possible reintroduction of death penalty in Hungary.

“Wake up Europe! Act4democracy” wants to go beyond condemnation and calls on the European Commission to trigger Article 7 of the TEU and bring the Hungarian issue to the Council. This article enables the Council to determine if there is a risk or the existence of a serious and persistent breach by a Member State of the values referred to in Article 2. It may lead to sanctions against a Member State, including the suspension of its voting rights at the Council.

The organizers have until November 2016 to gather at least one million signatures in at least seven EU countries. They are currently organizing translations and the official online platform to collect signatures with the European Commission. In the meantime, “Wake up Europe” calls on all democrats and civil society organisations willing to support and help to write at [email protected] , and to visit the website: www.act4democracy.eu

Wake up Europe’s Citizens’ committee

*A European citizens’ initiative is a mechanism introduced by the Lisbon Treaty which enables citizens to call on the European Commission to act on matters of EU competence. In order to be valid, the initiative must be launched by at least 7 EU citizens being resident in at least 7 different member states and must be backed by at least one million EU citizens, coming from at least 7 out of the 28 member states. The first condition is already fulfilled. The organisers call all European citizens willing to protect EU democratic values to support this initiative.