The European Commission has decided to take Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechia to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), accusing them of failing to implement European Union directives aiming at protecting human rights.
EU institutions claimed that these countries did not respect the “basic rights of suspects and accused persons”, the EC said on on July 25.
According to the EC, Hungary has failed “to ensure the effectiveness of the right of access to a lawyer” for suspects.
“The derogations from the right of access to a lawyer due to investigative needs and the waiver of the right of access to a lawyer are not correctly transposed,” it added.
Czechia and Bulgaria both failed to provide access to “the right to information” for suspects, which ensures judicial protection of an individual’s rights as set out in Directive 2012/13/EU. That was meant to have been put in place by June 2014, the EC stated.
Individuals in Bulgaria and Czechia who are “suspected and not yet officially accused of having committed a criminal offence do not enjoy the rights to which they are entitled under the Directive”, said the body.
As part of its July alleged infringement package, the EC also launched multiple cases against Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechia in various different policy areas for what it claimed was their failure to implement EU legislation into national law.
Should the ECJ find that these countries have breached EU laws, their relevant national authorities will have one chance to comply with the Court’s judgment before being subjected to financial penalties.
In June, the ECJ fined Hungary €200 million for failing to abide by EU laws on immigration.
The launching of infringement proceedings is not unusual in Brussels, with the von der Leyen-led body regularly lashing out at member states for failing to obey edicts.
This month, Brussels has decided to open such proceedings into every single one of its 27 member states after they all allegedly failed to properly implement its waste directive.
“The Commission is therefore sending letters of formal notice to each of the 27 Member States which now have two months to respond and address the shortcomings raised by the Commission,” the press release explaining the decision read.
“In the absence of satisfactory responses, the Commission may decide to [take further measures].”
