By Gergely Szakacs
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary's sweeping reform of the judiciary breaks a number of European rules and risks compromising judges' independence, according to a new report for the Council of Europe, adding to criticism of Budapest that risks blocking a deal on EU aid.
The report by the Council's Venice Commission, dated March 2 but only released this week, says the legislation raise problems around the right to a fair trial in Hungary and gives far too much power to the head of the newly created National Judicial Office.
"In no other member state of the Council of Europe such important powers, including the power to select judges and senior office holders are vested in a single person," it said.
"Taking into account the importance of the right to the lawful judge for a fair trial, the state has to resort to less intrusive means, in particular to provide for a sufficient number of judges and court staff," the Commission said.
The reform is among a raft of legislation to which the European Union has objected, blocking Hungary's efforts to launch talks with Brussels and the IMF on a multi-billion dollar deal for aid.
Attention has been focused on a very public row over the country's central bank, but critics have expressed a range of concerns over moves by Prime Minister Viktor Orban to strengthen the role of his Fidesz party in Hungary's civic institutions.
Orban has made several concessions including on the judicial reform since March 2 but there has been no sign of a start to the talks on aid that Hungary needs badly to bring its cost of borrowing down to sustainable levels.
While the Council of Europe - an independent body with 47 member states focused on promoting human rights, democracy and the rule of law - is not part of Brussels' decision-making, Secretary General Thorbjoern Jagland told Reuters it would be listened to on the issue of the Hungarian reforms.
"The EU will base its judgements on also the recommendations coming from us when it comes to discussion with the Hungarian government on the whole package which they are now having a process on regarding the financial situation," Jagland said.
The National Judicial Office is led by Tunde Hando, the wife of ruling Fidesz party stalwart Jozsef Szajer. She was appointed by parliament for a nine-year term.
Hungary's government has since submitted changes to the law trimming some of the powers of the head of this office. Jagland said this was a "major step forward" but more had to be done.
Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics told television late on Tuesday that Budapest was open to changes that would not harm the "conceptual integrity" of the judicial law, while flagging "several" potential points of disagreement.
"I assume that the EU has a kind of time limit in the sense that they are now working on this financial package which also will be based on the benchmarks on these issues that we have talked about here," Jagland said.
(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; editing by Patrick Graham)
