The CSF Board statement on Hungary’s proposed bill targeting foreign-funded NGOs

The Hungarian draft bill, titled the ‘‘Transparency of Public Life”, outlines plans to ban civil society from receiving foreign funding, including from the EU. In this new iteration of “foreign agents” legislation, Hungary follows the lead of other authoritarian regimes in the region. Russia first labelled NGOs with foreign funding as foreign agents. Georgia then did the same. And now, after a partially successful attempt in Slovakia, Viktor Orban’s government is bringing this insidious style of hardline legislation back within EU borders.

Civil Society Forum, a platform uniting 155 CSOs from Wider Europe, condemns this new piece of copycat legislation from the Hungarian government. The proposed bill would label civil society organisations as threats to national sovereignty and threaten them with draconian fines, an alarming escalation designed to silence anti-corruption, human rights, LGBTQIA+ and pro-democracy voices.

NGOs and nonprofit organisations are an essential part of a pluralist democracy. They scrutinise those in power, protect the vulnerable and ensure public accountability. Authoritarian leaders wanting to silence the voices of dissent introduce punitive fines as a tactic to suffocate dissent - often on the pretext of protecting sovereignty. Before Orban, similar reasoning was put forward by Putin and Lukashenko when they were consolidating power and tightening their grip on societies in their respective countries.

In effect, the proposed law would ban Hungarian NGOs from receiving funding from the European Union, of which Hungary is a member state. Penalising organisations for accessing EU grants is an attack on the very principles of European cooperation and solidarity. The proposed bill is an open statement that Hungary no longer shares the values enshrined in the EU founding documents. The EU Charter affirms values of human dignity, freedom, and democracy - principles this law flatly contradicts. This legislation is not compatible with the Charter at all and it leads us to the question: does Hungary under this regime really belong to the European community of nations?

If passed, this law would deal a devastating blow to civic space in Hungary and the EU.

We stand against this abhorrent piece of legislation and express our solidarity with the affected Hungarian NGOs and activist organisations. The European Union must act decisively. The European Commission must take legal action against the law. This includes using its powers to seek interim measures from the EU Court of Justice in the ongoing lawsuit related to the 2023 sovereignty protection law, and to ensure full respect for the Court’s earlier judgment in the Hungarian LexNGO case. Undemocratic practices should not be tolerated in any EU member state.