Posted on June, 05 2015

The Hungarian Constitutional Court decided against a law that could have undermined the future of protected areas in the country. The bill envisaged that 300,000 hectares of state-owned valuable natural area be managed by a central agency whose focus is not nature conservation, but state property policy. This would have weakened the national park directorates and would have resulted in some short-term income from sales only.

The law was found to be unconstitutional and it cannot come into force. It can be rewritten by Parliament again, but a two-third majority would be needed to vote it, which would be difficult to form.

“This is a big win for Hungary and nature. In the past few months, the coalition of WWF, Birdlife and Friends of the Earth Hungary had to work hard with public support to save the nature conservation system of our country. Now we have to develop a forward-looking strategy for its future,” said Katalin Sipos, director of WWF Hungary.

Thousands of Hungarians had expressed their concerns about the new law by sending letters to decision makers at the request of the three NGOs. Although all opposition MPs voted against the draft bill, it was approved by Parliament.

Based on a preliminary analysis done by the three NGOs, the country’s President János Áder put a veto on it and asked the constitutional court to consider.

The decision justifies the concern of the NGO coalition and other organisations that the law would have degraded the current level of nature protection if it had come into force, thus jeopardizing the constitutional right to a healthy environment.