Judith Sargentini, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, we have to conclude that, since the vote on my report in September, things in Hungary have actually only got worse. Hungarian citizens have every reason in the world to take to the streets and they deserve our continued solidarity.

Let me list for you some of the developments of this autumn. Mr Timmermans has done so as well. The Central European University has to move to Vienna because the agreement with the State of New York is not going to be signed; homelessness was made a punishable crime; a new administrative court is being set up, overseen by the Justice Minister; the former Macedonian Prime Minister, sentenced for corruption, got refugee status in the blink of an eye; 450 pro-government media outlets were merged into a single conglomerate; and the Parliament passed the ‘slave law’.

Internal memos of the Hungarian Government became public yesterday and they show what we all know: they are stalling for time. They are flooding their colleagues in the Council with paperwork and they suggest cooperating, but what they’re doing is stalling for time. Now that is not a surprise, but now that this is official, this demands that the Romanian Presidency come forward with its timetable. Hungarian citizens have the right to protection and the right to know what you’re planning to do. European voters have the right to know what their political leaders are going to do. So I ask you to take that responsibility, to invite me to the Council and start a real process.

To my colleagues in the European People’s Party – some of you are there, I appreciate that, a lot of you are not there – I continue to appreciate that you voted for my report, but what have you been doing since? Where is your sense of responsibility?