Claude Moraes (S&D). - Mr President, of course our group takes a different view of the Tavares report. The report was set up in good faith with the central point that we are not targeting the people of Hungary. This mandate has been full of instances where Member States, including original Member States, had to be in this House and have had to have their fundamental rights tested in a very difficult way. And here we are testing another Member State and that is difficult, of course it is difficult.

However, when we have had a weakening of legal checks and balances, a weakening of the independence of the judiciary, biased electoral reform, and when independent NGOs such as Freedom House are talking about a deterioration in press freedom over such a short time span that they had never seen before in another Member State, we must take this seriously.

To return to the Tavares report, it is up to us to test the fundamental values of the European Union and not to target a Member State. This is what we hope we have done in our group in good faith. In doing so we come to the conclusions of the report and we say as a group, it is not about targeting any individual Member State but coming to a conclusion.

Firstly, to ensure that we have an own-initiative report to determine any further modifications that need to be adopted. Secondly, to look at the use of Article 7(1) of the Treaty on European Union, and finally to call upon the Commission to set up a monitoring mechanism to examine respect for and adherence to Union values. All of these things must be done. This is a test of the fundamental values of all Member States and not just the targeting of one Member State.