EU Presidency

9 EU states want a Financial Transaction Tax

February 8, 2012
By Stephen
9 EU states want a Financial Transaction Tax

Nine Eurozone members want the Danish Presidency of the EU to speed up its work on a directive on a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). While there is much opposition within the Eurozone and wider EU to such a tax, the nine countries intend to use the community method to allow them to use the EU institutions to set up and administer the tax and allow other countries to join while not holding them back. The nine countries are: France Germany Austria...

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Presidency won’t hold back the Commission

January 4, 2011
By Stephen
Presidency won’t hold back the Commission

Image via Wikipedia EUBusiness is reporting that the fact that Hungary is the current holder of the rotating EU Presidency will not hold them back from launching proceedings if the new media law is found to be in breach of Community Law. “If there’s an infringement of community law, the Commission will launch proceedings and the fact Hungary presides the European Union will have no bearing,” Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly said. … Bailly said EU legal experts would scrutinise...

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Hungary Digging in its Heels

January 4, 2011
By Stephen
Hungary Digging in its Heels

Image via Wikipedia It was has not been a great start to its Presidency, Hungary is now digging its heels in response to criticism of its controversial media law. “It isn’t necessary to change a Hungarian law just because it is subject to criticism from abroad,” Zoltan Kovacs, state secretary for communication, told national radio. “Before criticising, let’s wait and see how this law works. We are confident it will be up to the task,” he added. Source This...

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Hungary’s new censorship laws.

December 22, 2010
By Stephen
Hungary’s new censorship laws.

Image by Ben Beiske via Flickr On the 1st of January a new era will dawn on Hungary. It will take over the Presidency of European Council for the first time and a new law on media freedom will come into effect. While the first thing is something for Hungarians to celebrate, the law on the other hand is not. It has been criticised by the OSCE Media freedom representative who wrote in a report that “Regulating print media...

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