Hungary's government set out plans on Tuesday to create new administrative courts overseen by the justice minister. The courts will deal with lawsuits about government business that are currently covered in the general legal system, according to the text of a bill to set them up posted on parliament's website. Lawmakers will debate it later this year.

The EU has criticized a series of legal measures pushed through by Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, including the forced retirement of some judges. In September the European Parliament voted to impose sanctions on Hungary for flouting EU rules on democracy, civil rights and corruption. The government rejected the accusations.

In the text of the legislation, posted online on Tuesday night, he said other European countries had similar administrative courts, and the reforms would ensure the country had a "high quality of ... administrative judiciary." "The model will respect judges' independence ... and at the same time will establish the justice minister's political responsibility for the effective operation of administrative courts," he said in the bill. Trocsanyi said the government would seek the opinion of the Venice Commission, a panel of constitutional law experts of the human rights body Council of Europe, about the legislation.