Dear Supporters, dear friends of the Network,

On Wednesday, the Hungarian Parliament decided to delay its vote on the “Transparency of Public Life” bill which was scheduled to be on the agenda next week.

More information on the delay, and the bill itself here.

The situation reached us with a sense of surprise, as this has rarely, if at all happened when it comes to the government’s decision making process. Having said that, as representatives of the UNITED secretariat we want to guide your attention to the following takeaways.

We won’t rely on a false sense of security.

The bill is delayed, but not off the table and is said to be presented on the parliament’s floor in autumn. This does provide us with some time to map out our next steps concerning the issue, but it does not negate the risks associated with the bill once it would come into effect.

We will continue to inform you on upcoming changes in the process, and push further onwards with our advocacy outreach to combat this crackdown.

Communication will be paced accordingly.

We have many exciting developments for you that we had to unfortunately sideline due to the windfall. With now at least 3 more months on our hands we want to focus to some extent on our initial priorities when it comes to our communication.

We will keep our donation channels open (more info here) until the bill is voted on. Expect also a change in pace once the situation would heat up again. Until then you will find a short summary at the bottom of our posts.

More Network reach for you.

The last couple of weeks were nerve wracking to say the least and we sincerely want to thank you for your support during this time. Organisations, individuals and public bodies alike were all with us in this campaign. We truly value your assistance and want to assure you that we will be more available than recently to take to your requests.

For the case that we were unable to follow up on an inquiry since May 13th please feel free to circle back on any questions or proposals you would have forwarded during this time.

Expect a UNITED Town hall meeting.

Now 3 points and hyperlink will hardly do justice to explain the situation in depth. This is why we propose an open town hall meeting where you can:

• Ask any questions on the bill and the secretariat’s situation in Budapest;
• Have the chance to put forward an open agenda point which can be both addressed to the secretariat or your fellow;
• Get a better understanding of UNITED’s future and what work you can expect from us till the end of 2025.

Currently we still need to find a fitting time for all staff members, but details will be published soon on our newsletter and socials.

The event will be held online and will be free to join for everyone. We will also attach a registration document at the official announcement where you can provide your questions and your agenda point(s) beforehand.

Please anticipate that due to the rather packed schedule we will need to limit speaking time to 10 minutes with a 5 minutes discussion slot afterwards in order to give enough space to everyone.

We sincerely thank you for your support so far, and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best regards:

 

 

________________________
Philip Pollák | Director
UNITED for Intercultural Action

tel: +36 70 772 9701 (Whatsapp, Signal)
mail: [email protected]
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