Justice min: Govt in favour of 'Europe of strong nations'

Hungary's government wants to see Europe as a "strong alliance of strong nations", Justice Minister Judit Varga said during an annual hearing before parliament's European affairs committee on Monday. Integration is a means and not an end in itself, Varga said, underscoring the government's support for an alliance of nations built on mutual respect over a federalist Europe. The minister also discussed the ongoing Article 7 procedure against Hungary, calling it a "political procedure" that was "going nowhere". She also criticised the European Commission's rule-of-law report on Hungary for containing "three to four times as many references to NGOs" as the reports for other countries and for "accepting criticisms from NGOs as facts".