Hungary’s new anti-NGO law is a full-frontal assault on the EU Commission

Europe has been facing illiberal, authoritarian challenges to pluralist democracy with growing intensity and frequency since the inauguration of the second Trump administration.

Emboldened by both the retreat of US democratic leverage and the disturbingly familiar aspirations of the current US government, Europe’s illiberal actors are increasingly willing to deploy authoritarian tactics to maintain their grip on power — often amid mounting domestic opposition and eroding legitimacy.

Following the introduction of Slovakia’s anti-CSO law on 16 April, a Hungarian MP from the ruling Fidesz party submitted a draft bill on 13 May that may soon become the fifth piece of anti-NGO legislation in Hungary since 2017.

This time, however, the bill’s design surpasses all previous efforts in its open attack on basic democratic norms and fundamental rights in Hungary, as well as on the core principles of EU law and the authority and competences of the European Commission.

If the draft law titled On Transparency in the Public Sphere enters into force, it will make it outright impossible for civil society organisations (CSOs) that are critical of the government or advocate for women’s and LGBTQI+ rights to receive any form of support from abroad — including dedicated EU funding under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme.

According to the draft legislation, the country’s Sovereignty Protection Office — a state authority established in December 2023 to intimidate civil society and independent media in Hungary — will be empowered to propose that the government place organisations it deems as allegedly threatening Hungary’s sovereignty on a special list.

Once listed, these organisations will lose their tax-benefit status, including the right to receive one percent of Hungarian citizens’ income tax donations, and will be barred from receiving any form of financial support from foreign sources.

If they do, they will be fined up to 25 times the original grant amount, which must be paid within 15 days of the relevant authority’s decision.

With severely restricted rights to appeal in court and their bank accounts subject to monitoring and even suspension of transactions, the law effectively eliminates the ability of critical CSOs and independent media outlets to receive grants and donations from abroad. This further amplifies the already significant resource advantage held by government-controlled NGOs (GONGOs) and media outlets.

Even Hungarian supporters of these organisations must attach a “private deed with full evidentiary force” to their donations, proving the domestic origin of the funds. Should the Sovereignty Protection Office accuse them of channelling foreign funding, they risk facing criminal charges for alleged forgery.

The domestic political logic behind the law is more than evident.

Any critical act that may cast doubt on the democratic or constitutional character of Hungary — or question the primacy of marriage, family, and a person’s biological sex at birth — is deemed a threat to the country’s sovereignty if allegedly supported by foreign funding aimed at influencing public opinion or voting behaviour.

Suffocate any opposition

The clear goal is to suffocate what remains of Hungary’s critical civil society and to intimidate independent media ahead of the highly contested 2026 elections — elections that, according to all available independent polling data, the incumbent Fidesz party would lose if held today.

This is an explicitly authoritarian piece of legislation, surpassing even Russia’s foreign agent law in its lack of legal remedies, and it serves unambiguously anti-democratic purposes.

However, the challenge posed by the law to the authority of EU law and institutions is equally serious. Labelling entire EU policy fields — such as anti-discrimination — and specific commission programmes — like CERV — as threats to a member state’s sovereignty goes far beyond the typical infringement on the free movement of capital, as seen with Hungary’s 2017 anti-CSO law.

This new legislation directly challenges the primacy of EU law and the legitimacy of the European Commission’s policy agenda.

Furthermore, introduced in close proximity to Slovakia’s anti-CSO law and set against a political backdrop in which both European radical-right groups and MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) are attacking EU funding provided by the commission to civil society organisations — including through the CERV program — the Hungarian government is attempting to exploit the commission’s divided attention and its potentially limited capacity to respond robustly amid this wave of coordinated political attacks.

Despite these complicating factors, the EU Commission must recognise the unprecedented nature of this attack, not only on the last remaining bulwarks of pluralist liberal democracy in an increasingly authoritarian Hungary, but also on the EU legal order and the commission’s own institutional prerogatives.

If the commission fails to respond with equal determination, the damage to the integrity of the EU legal order could be far-reaching. It must recognise the urgency of the situation and the fact that it cannot allow this law to enter into force and unleash its destructive impact.

Instead of pursuing separate approaches to the Slovak and Hungarian anti-CSO laws, the commission must recognise their shared roots and characteristics — and respond with a unified approach: by immediately requesting interim measures from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to suspend their implementation following the initiation of the respective infringement procedures.

Based on past infringement proceedings and ECJ case law concerning previous Hungarian legislation, there is no doubt that the draft law constitutes a fundamental violation of EU law, nor that the damage it would cause will be impossible to remedy if its implementation is not suspended.

In an era of increasingly emboldened would-be EU autocrats, the commission must step up its game and respond with determination and vigour.

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