EU Top Court Strikes Down Hungarian “Stop Soros” Law

NEW YORK—The Open Society Justice Initiative welcomes today’s ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) that a 2018 Hungarian law ostensibly targeting asylum seekers infringes European Union law.

The law was part of legislation dubbed the “Stop Soros” package by the Hungarian government, launched against the background of intense attacks on independent civil society groups in general, and on the Open Society Foundations and their founder George Soros in particular.

The CJEU, responding to a complaint from the European Commission, ruled that the law violates EU norms by threatening to imprison people who assist asylum-seekers, and seeking to “criminalize organizing activities.”

James A. Goldston, executive director of the Justice Initiative, said: “This law was always a cynical political ploy by the Hungarian government. It was focused not on addressing any real threat to the security of Hungary’s borders, but on intimidating independent critics of the government by exposing their legitimate activities to a broad threat of criminal prosecution.”

In an application filed in August 2019, before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, Open Society argued that the legislative package breached the guarantees of freedom of expression and association enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights and must be repealed.

The complaint also argued that the legal provisions were so broadly written that they would have a far-reaching and chilling effect on the work of civil society far beyond the field of migration.

Just months before the passage of the law, the Open Society Foundations announced the moving of their regional headquarters out of Budapest, where they had been based for 30 years. The announcement cited the hostile political and legal environment, which has included a two-year hate campaign by the Hungarian government against the Foundations and their partners.

In June 2020, the CJEU struck down another Hungarian law that required nongovernmental organizations that receive more than €24,000 of foreign funding per year to register as such and publicly list their donors, describing the law as “discriminatory and unjustified.”

The Open Society Foundations are proud to support civil society groups which advocate for the protection and security—the saving of lives—of refugees and migrants.