Announcement - Call for Tender

• Rule of law has worsened in 2020 compared to 2019, in part due to COVID which exacerbated existing problems
• Governments with authoritarian tendencies in Hungary, Poland and Slovenia have used the pandemic as an excuse to weaken democratic standards further
• Some countries with serious democratic failings like the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania are seeing reforms that could potentially result in improvements to judicial independence, anti-corruption, and the freedoms of campaigners and citizens’ groups
• Threats to media freedom and free speech, attacks on journalists and activists, repression of protests and free speech, and limitations on access to public interest information are alarming in many EU countries, including some with traditionally strong democratic records such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain

Civil society organisations call on the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) to analyse the Hungarian Government Decree suspending the application of certain rights provided for under the GDPR and advise the European Commission in their consideration to launch an infringement procedure.

Although parents, teachers and child protection professionals have jointly called on MPs during the past weeks not to vote for the restriction of the Child Protection Act, the Hungarian Parliament has passed an amendment of the law.