The Hungary rapporteur of the European Parliament, Tineke Strik, told Euronews that enough of the body's political groups support the debate. The law, once adopted will see foreign funded NGO's and media listed and potentially fined.
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The European Parliament will stage an urgent debate on Hungary's proposed new transparency law, part of a self-styled "spring clean" by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, during the plenary session in Brussels on Wednesday, the Parliament's rapporteur for Hungary, MEP Tineke Strik (Netherlands/Greens) has told Euronews.
The draft law was introduced to the Hungarian Parliament last week by the ruling party Fidesz to international outcry. Once adopted, the act would see foreign-funded media and NGO's listed and facing fines where foreign interference is alleged.
"At the opening of the agenda (of the plenary session) I will ask for a plenary debate and I am very confident that we will have a majority and so we will probably have a debate tomorrow at the end of the afternoon," Strik told Euronews.
The Dutch Green party MEP added that enough parties are behind the initiative for the debate, citing groups that went on a mission to Budapest a month ago, "because we are all very, very concerned about the current, the continuous backsliding of rule of law, and this new bill is very much adding to that."
She was referring to all the political groups except the Patriots for Europe, European Conservatives and Reformists and the Europe of Sovereign Nations, who will support the tabling of the debate, clearing the way for it to take place.
Viktor Orbán's right-wing conservative government has also courted controversy this year by banning Budapest's gay pride march and by tabling another law that would give the Hungarian Parliament the right to revoke the mandates of MEPs in certain circumstances.
Orbán called for a "spring clean" in March against what he called a foreign-funded machine working against Hungary's sovereignty. But critics say the law aims to silence critical media and the public.
"We are very concerned about how much it will undermine every critical voice that is now still surviving in Hungary. And that this last, you know, it might be the last step towards the collapse of civic space, of journalists, of civil society, actually of everyone who raises his voice with criticism against this government," Strik told Euronews.
Hungarians held a mass demonstration against the plans last weekend and dozens of media companies asked the EU to assist independent media in Hungary.
The Commission so far refused to comment on the content of the draft law, saying a legal analysis will be done once the draft is adopted by the Hungarian parliament.