The Hungarian Presidency – Halfway Point

Hungary took over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in July 2024. With the European Parliament elections having recently taken place in June and the new college of Commissioners yet to be voted in, Hungary heads the Council at a transitional period in the institutions. However, concerns over Hungary’s rule of law record, and its position on Ukraine and close alignment with Russia were raised prior to country assuming the presidency. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has long been at odds with EU leaders since first taking power in 2010. This Just the Facts looks at the events of the Hungarian Presidency so far and what we can expect in the coming months.

Concerns over Hungary’s Presidency were made as early as a year in advance. The European Parliament passed a resolution in May 2023, questioning Hungary’s ability to host the presidency due to its continued failure to uphold the rule of law domestically. In addition,  efforts had previously been made to suspend Hungary’s voting rights in the European Council under Article 7(1) of the Treaty of the European Union, which permits Member States to suspend another member’s voting rights due to a serious and persistent breaches of  European Unions (EU) fundamental values. This procedure was deployed against Hungary in 2018, over restrictions imposed by the Hungarian government on media freedom, civil society organisations and minority groups. Although the procedure is still ongoing, it has led to the freezing of EU funds for Hungary in this period.

Moreover, Belgium, the country which held the Presidency prior to Hungary, urged national governments to suspend Hungary’s voting rights in the lead up to the transition. Despite concerns, on 1 July  Hungary assumed the Presidency with the Trump-like slogan “Make Europe Great Again” and the logo of a Rubik’s cube after Hungarian sculptor Ernő Rubik.

The First Week

In the first week of the Presidency, Viktor Orbán went on a series of self-proclaimed “peace missions” where he visited Kyiv, Moscow, Beijing, Washington and Mar-a-Lago. The first stop was Ukraine where Orbán flew to Kyiv to meet with President Zelensky. Despite having voted against EU military aid to Ukraine in 2023, he reaffirmed support and assured President Zelensky that Hungary as the country holding the Presidency of the Council, would remain at Ukraine’s disposal.

Orbán then flew to Moscow, Russia to meet with President Putin where he was received as both “a long-standing partner” and the “President of the Council”. The next stop on the ‘diplomatic’ tour was Beijing to meet with President Xi Jinping. The tour continued to the NATO summit in Washington and then concluded in Florida where Orbán met Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago.

EU Leaders React

The turbulent first week evoked widespread condemnation from EU Leaders and the US. The EU’s High Representative, Jospeh Borell, stated the engagement between Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin took place in the “framework of bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia” and that “Prime Minister Orbán did not receive any mandate from the EU Council to visit Moscow”.

The actions of Orbán’s peace missions were considered to have gone explicitly against the bloc’s foreign policy approach. The Council’s legal service had to remind Orbán that the Presidency of the Council does not have a role in EU foreign policy and, if the leader of any EU country, especially the country holding the Presidency goes on any bilateral trips, their positions have to be consistent with those of the Council.

In response to Orbán’s actions the European Commission announced a boycott of all Commissioners of informal Council meetings in Hungary, sending only senior civil servants to attend. The traditional College visit to the Presidency was also cancelled in response to the peace missions. The timing of the diplomatic tour, the selection of countries and the use of the Hungarian presidency’s official logo fuelled harsh accusations of abuse of power and disloyalty.

Hungary’s Presidency priorities

After a bad start to the Council Presidency, Orbán’s presentation to the European Parliament was twice delayed resulting in the session only taking place in Strasbourg on 9 October – midway through Hungary’s term. During his address Orbán painted Hungary as being a “voice and catalyst for change” in a complex European and geopolitical context. He vowed that Hungary would be an “honest broker” in relation to a new EU competitiveness deal, a farmer centred agriculture policy and stemming ‘illegal’ migration. These were listed in the Council Presidency priorities along with defence and cohesion policy. Unlike its trio predecessors – Spain and Belgium – Hungary has not included climate action, equal opportunities and democracy and rule of law among its priorities.

Key Challenges

Presenting its priorities midway during its tenure, allowed the President of the Commission and MEPs to express their opinions on Hungary’s performance to date.

Migration

On the issue of migration, Orbán emphasised the need for stricter border controls and called on the EU to use “hotspots” – to outsource the processing of asylum claims to third countries. He also reiterated Hungary’s request to opt-out of the Pact on Migration and Asylum, as has similarly been proposed by the Dutch. His statements coincide with EU leaders preparing to discuss migration at an EU summit next week, in particular on how to reduce the arrivals of refugees and migrants to the bloc and agreeing a common approach to deportations. Hungary has previously passed controversial migration laws, including in 2018, when Orbán’s government made it illegal for asylum seekers who had passed through a ‘safe country’ prior to reaching Hungary, to seek asylum in Hungary.

Also on the topic of migration, Orbán spread dangerous disinformation when he implied that irregular migration has led to “increasing antisemitism, violence against women and homophobia” in Europe. Hungary.

In response, Ursula von der Leyen criticised Hungary for its decision to release convicted smugglers and traffickers from prison, as well as for their visa programme which allows Russians to enter the EU without additional security checks.

Rule of law

Many MEPs used the opportunity to reiterate the EU’s longstanding concerns as regards Hungary’s rule of law and human rights record, particularly in relation to media freedoms, judicial independence, civic space and corruption.  In December of 2022, the Commission froze 22 billion euros worth of EU Cohesion funds for Hungary until its government met conditions related to judiciary independence, academic freedoms, LGBTQI rights and the asylum system.

Half of these funds (10 billion) were reinstated in December of 2023, over improvements in the country’s judicial independence. However, the Commission is still holding funds in relation rule of law in areas of public procurement, prosecutorial action, conflict of interest and corruption.  MEPs continue to call for meaningful progress to be made under the Article 7 (1) procedure and for the Commission to initiate procedures against Hungary under Article 7 (2).Despite these unresolved concerns, Hungary chaired a meeting of the General Affairs Council in September where the EU’s Rule of Law report was discussed. European Affairs Ministers from Member States took the opportunity to send a clear message to Hungary including Ireland’s Minister for European Affairs Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

Russia – Ukraine

Hungary has been an outlier in the EU’s relationship with Russia. In his speech at the Plenary, Orbán outlined the decision of the EU to stop purchasing Russian energy sources has had a negative impact on EU competitiveness. This follows his consistent pattern of voting against sanctions on Russia and military assistance to Ukraine including long-term financing. Instead, the Prime Minister continues to call for a “ceasefire” in Ukraine and believes the pathway to peace involves entering “negotiations” with Russia. This is an idea the bloc has consistently rejected,  with Ursula von der Leyen stating, “There are still some who blame this war not on the invader but the invaded” in response to Hungary’s calls for a ceasefire.

New far-right group in the Parliament

Following on from the European Parliament elections in June of this year, Orbán led on establishing a new far-right group in the Parliament “Patriots for Europe”. Orban’s Fidesz party along with Andrej Babiš ANO (Czech Republic) and the Freedom Party (Austria) were founding members of the group.  The Patriots for Europe Group advocates for traditional values to be re-instated in Europe such as ‘the traditional family model’, ‘national sovereignty’ and reducing ‘illegal immigration’. These values were expressed by Orbán in his address at the plenary where he stressed that national states need to ‘take back control’ from the EU.

Next Steps

Hungary will continue to preside over the Council until 31 December 2024, when it will then be Poland’s tenure. The country will oversee the election of the new college of Commissioners and two European Council meetings during the remaining months of the Presidency. However, with the EU institutions still in transition, it remains to be seen how much influence Hungary will have over legislative files.  You can view the remaining programme of events on our Presidency Calander here.

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