OPINION ON THE DRAFT LAW
ON THE TRANSPARENCY OF ORGANISATIONS
RECEIVING SUPPORT FROM ABROAD
Venice Commission Opinion By Richard Clayton QC
Introduction
On 27 April 2017, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted Resolution
2162(2017)1 requesting the opinion of the Venice Commission on the compatibility with Council
of Europe standards of the Hungarian Draft Law on the Transparency of Organisations
Receiving Support from Abroad (hereinafter, “the Draft Law”).
Ms Veronika Bílková, Mr Richard Clayton and Ms Herdís Kjerulf Thorgeirsdottir acted as
rapporteurs for this opinion.
On 11-12 May 2017, a delegation of the Commission, composed of Ms Bílková and Mr
Clayton accompanied by Simona Granata-Menghini (Deputy Secretary of the Venice
Commission) and Mr Ziya Caga Tanyar (legal officer at the Secretariat), visited Budapest and
met with the Deputy Prosecutor General, the President of the Constitutional Court, President,
Vice-president and judges of the Curia, representatives of parliamentary groups, Deputy
Speaker responsible for the Legislation, the Minister of Justice, the State Secretary of the
Ministry of Justice and Chairman of the Human Rights Working group, Deputy Secretary for
Churches, Minorities and Civil Affairs of the Ministry of Human Capacities and a number of
NGO representatives. The Venice Commission delegation is grateful to the authorities for their
excellent cooperation during the visit.
The present opinion was prepared on the basis of contributions by the rapporteurs and on
the basis of official translations of the Draft Law on the Transparency of organisations
Receiving Support from Abroad accompanied by an Explanatory Memorandum (General
statement of reasons) concerning the Draft Law (CDL-REF(2017)025rev). Inaccuracies may
occur in this opinion as a result of incorrect translations.A preliminary opinion2 was prepared on the basis of contributions by the rapporteurs and sent to the Hungarian authorities on 2 June 2017.
On 13 June 2017, the Hungarian Parliament adopted the Law with certain amendments (CDL-REF(2017)031).
The present Opinion was adopted by the Venice Commission at its 111th Plenary Session (Venice, 16-17 June 2017).
A copy of the full opinion is here.
20 June 2017