The situation in Hungary

My position on this vote was adopted on the following grounds: Prima facie, on the basis of information that is available, I disagree with a number of the policies followed by the present Hungarian government for their illiberal and authoritarian orientation. However I do not believe that the procedures adopted in this House to consider and pass judgement on governmental decision making in our member states are objective, transparent or fair. I say so from personal knowledge of how such procedures are being applied in the case of my country, Malta, where the methods and approaches being followed by members of this Parliament to examine governance issues, are crassly biased. This has happened to the extent that when so-called NGOs are consulted about the situation in the country, they are chosen in a partisan and one sided way. If such approaches are adopted with regard to a given country, it cannot be excluded that they are also followed in other instances. The politicised manner by which this Parliament investigates governance issue nullify in my view the credibility and legitimacy of such investigations. I do not want my vote to give the impression that this fundamental flaw is non-problematic.