Cold snap on the Old Continent. The prospect of seeing Viktor Orban's Hungary assume the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2024 is causing unease in Brussels, due to Budapest's anti-democratic excesses and its links with the Kremlin.
The Council of the EU, in which the ministers of the member states debate European legislation, is chaired in turn for six months by each of the 27 countries of the bloc, which then gives the impetus and defines the priorities. The EU Treaty, which establishes the principle of "equal rotation" between member states for this presidency, does not provide for an exception to the rule.
Only once has a country deviated from it. The United Kingdom had given up exercising it in the second half of 2017 due to the decision of the British to leave the Union during the 2016 referendum.
Echoing the concerns of European parliamentarians over Budapest, German State Secretary for European Affairs Anna Lührmann did not mince words when she arrived on Tuesday for a meeting with her counterparts in Brussels. Hungary, led by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, "is currently isolated within the European Union due to rule of law issues that are really serious," the German official said.
Moreover, she pointed out, Hungary "still casts doubt on its support for Ukraine in Russia's brutal war of aggression". "That's why I have doubts about Hungary's ability to carry out its presidency of the Council," she continued.
Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra also expressed his "discomfort" at the prospect of Hungary's EU presidency. "That's how we all feel," he said. Hungarian Minister of Justice Judit Varga defended her country's ability to ensure this rotating presidency by organizing the debates "in good faith".
Hungary has already held this rotating presidency in the first half of 2011. Judit Varga castigated the "political pressure" of the European Parliament, which plans to vote on a resolution on the subject on Thursday, deeming this discussion "insane".
The draft resolution asks how Viktor Orban's government "can credibly fulfill its task in view of its failure to respect EU law and values", and calls on the Council to "find a solution as soon as possible". .
The text was presented by several of the main political groups in the hemicycle – EPP (right), S
Moreover, since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Viktor Orban has refused to help kyiv militarily, blames the policy of sanctions against Moscow and maintains ties with the Kremlin.
"The possibility of postponing the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU could prove to be a most effective approach to compel Hungary to respect its obligations in terms of the rule of law", argues Alberto Alemanno, professor of European law at the School of Higher Business Studies (HEC).
He points out that the Hungarian presidency will take place at a highly political moment: just after the European elections in June 2024, when the heads of the main EU institutions are appointed.
