Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 18 June 2020 — European Commission v Hungary

(Case C-78/18) ¹

(Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations — Admissibility — Article 63 TFEU — Free movement of capital — Existence of a restriction — Burden of proof — Indirect discrimination linked to the origin of the capital — Article 12 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union — Right to freedom of association — National rules imposing on associations receiving financial support sent from other Member States or from third countries legally binding obligations of registration, declaration and publication which can be enforced — Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights — Right to respect for private life — Article 8(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights — Right to the protection of personal data — National rules imposing the disclosure of information on persons providing financial support to associations and of the amount of that support — Justification — Overriding reason in the public interest — Transparency of the financing of associations — Article 65 TFEU — Public policy — Public security — Fight against money laundering, financing of terrorism and organised crime — Article 52(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights)

Language of the case: Hungarian

Parties

Applicant: European Commission (represented by: V. Di Bucci, L. Havas, L. Malferrari and K. Talabér-Ritz, then by V. Di Bucci, L. Havas and L. Malferrari, acting as Agents)

Defendant: Hungary (represented by: M.Z. Fehér and G. Koós, acting as Agents)

Intervener in support of the applicant: Kingdom of Sweden (represented by: A. Falk, C. Meyer-Seitz and H. Shev, acting as Agents)

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Declares that, by adopting the provisions of the a külföldről támogatott szervezetek átláthatóságáról szóló 2017. évi LXXVI. törvény (Law No LXXVI of 2017 on the Transparency of Organisations which receive Support from Abroad), which impose obligations of registration, declaration and publication on certain categories of civil society organisations directly or indirectly receiving support from abroad exceeding a certain threshold and which provide for the possibility of applying penalties to organisations that do not comply with those obligations, Hungary has introduced discriminatory and unjustified restrictions on foreign donations to civil society organisations, in breach of its obligations under Article 63 TFEU and Articles 7, 8 and 12 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union;

Orders Hungary to pay the costs;

Orders the Kingdom of Sweden to bear its own costs.

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¹ OJ C 211, 18.6.2018.