Hungarian Conservative

The participants of the conference agreed to hold regular meetings to assess migration processes, said President of the Visegrád Four and Interior Minister of the Czech Republic Vít Rakušan in Budapest on Monday.

Earlier this year, the EU reached a preliminary agreement with Hungary regarding judicial reforms, outlining specific milestones that the Orbán government must fulfil to access funds.

According to the Commissioner for Human Rights, both the draft legislative package submitted to parliament and the government’s parallel proposal, which seeks to integrate the new office into the Fundamental Law, are ‘so ambiguous that the proposed office could be used as a weapon against anyone considered an adversary.

‘It seems clear that both federalists and sovereigntists agree that the current treaty framework isn’t up to the task of addressing the crises in the European Union and its Member States. To tackle these issues, it’s evident that new treaties need to be crafted.’

The payment would come as part of the Union’s RepowerEU plan, aimed to help Member States transition to green energy, thus would not come from the €36 billion of COVID recovery and cohesion funds suspended over supposed rule of law concerns.

During a debate in the UN Security Council, Foreign Minister Szijjártó of Hungary argued that the international community should focus on trying to improve the conditions in the migrants’ countries of origin instead of hosting them in more developed foreign countries. He also suggested that migration should be examined from a security, not a humanitarian perspective.

Minister of EU Affairs János Bóka of Hungary told reporters in Belgium on Wednesday that the EU’s policy of sending excessive military aid to Ukraine should be critically re-evaluated. The minister also declared that the EU must demand that the hostages held by Hamas be released immediately and unconditionally.

Ursula von der Leyen, presenting the report on the expected reforms for the EU accession of Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, as well as the accession prospects for the Western Balkans and Turkey, announced that the European Commission recommends initiating accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, as soon as they meet final conditions.

In his speech at the Summit of the Organization of Turkic States, Viktor Orbán stated that Europe is facing difficult dilemmas, and the answers provided will have a strong impact on the relationship between the Turkic world and the continent. The PM emphasized that from a European perspective, global security is currently in the worst condition since the end of the Cold War.

Is it possible that concerns over the health and safety of EU citizens regarding the ‘illicit’ drug trade, suddenly dissipate when it becomes ‘licit’ ? If the answer to this is no, could a procedure under Article 7 be initiated against Germany, given that the dispute pertains to values defined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union?

The building complex, designed by acclaimed Hungarian architect and designer Károly Kós and housing the most important Hungarian cultural institution beyond Hungary’s borders, will reopen on 26 October.

Within just a few days, the Commission has gone from announcing a complete suspension of aid to the Palestinians to tripling humanitarian aid to them. No wonder a special summit was soon needed to coordinate EU communication on the conflict in Israel.

The minister explained that the negotiations’ next phase, according to plans, will commence this Thursday. The goal of the government is to start the financing of EU projects as soon as the negotiations regarding the authorizing of the release of the funds are completed.

Hungary has been a committed promoter of the European Union’s enlargement in the Western Balkans, and sees it as a fundamental interest of European security and economy, Judit Varga, a Fidesz lawmaker, told Hungarian news agency MTI after talks in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In addition to the Hungarian leadership, from 2024, the Hungarian Defence Forces will contribute with additional forces to Operation Althea including helicopter airlift and bomb disposal capabilities.

The French and German political elites have apparently grown tired of the never-ending debates about the present and future of the European Union, which are impeding the integration goals they wish to see, and now want to force them to an end. In some ways, this would also mean a break with the ‘Europa auf Augenhöhe’ (‘Europe at eye level’) policy that made the EU so attractive in the 1990s, and it is to be expected that the ‘problematic’ member states of Central and Eastern Europe will not let this pass without a fight.

Simplistic labels like ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’ for a rules-based, nations-centric approach are to be rejected—one can learn from former foreign minister of Hungary János Martini’s new English language book Nation and Europe: In Lieu of Memoirs which was presented to the audience on 18 September at Danube Institute.

In his introduction, Hölvényi emphasized that in recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic and wars have weakened people’s faith and religiosity. Rebuilding and strengthening faith will take many years of work, but change must always start from within, he noted.

Besides supporting EU’s EDIRPA and ASAP initiatives, Hungary has also been participating in joint capacity building and procurement programmes with France and Germany.

According to Hungarian Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, Hungary and Georgia’s cultural similarities make the bilateral dialogue easier. Both nations speak a unique language, have a ‘closed culture’, and are committed to the values of Christianity, he stressed.

As the European Commission’s politicization takes place without real democratic political legitimacy, serious dilemmas arise: what exactly are the interests of the President of the European Commission, and whom does she represent when she gives her annual State of the Union Address?

Szijjártó urged the start of genuine European Union accession negotiations for Albania and North Macedonia. He emphasized that Europe is facing extraordinary economic and security challenges, making the stability and peace of the Western Balkans more crucial than ever.

The European Parliament’s new campaign proposal would not only end the foreign affairs veto by amending the EU treaties but would also give the EU more power in the area of the rule of law and migration. As part of that overreach attempt, it would also suspend Hungary’s right to hold the EU presidency.

The year 1000 is not only memorable for Hungarians: at the turn of the first millennium, unexpected events took place in the whole of Europe, including on the fringes of the continent barely touched by Latin Christianity, in Poland and Hungary, where Christian conversion had been going on for years.

Timmermans’ name might ring a bell with our readers, as he has frequently criticised the Hungarian government and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

‘A significant part of European culture is fading away. The Greek tradition of philosophy, knowledge, curiosity, is being lost. We live in the period of cancel culture, of narrowing down what can be contested or argued or put into question. In terms of reason, of statecraft, state building, practical political rationality, much has also been lost.’

It seems that the majority of MEPs are aware of the legal and political limitations of the options for action outlined in the Meijers Committee’s analysis, but are committed to continuing to exert political pressure on Hungary and Poland in the coming months.

The Hungarian foreign minister announced that Budapest will not consent to further arms shipments to Ukraine as long as Kyiv fails to remove OTP Bank from its list of international war sponsors.

The controversial document highlights the ongoing concerns of the EU Commission regarding the rule of law in Hungary. While the country has introduced legislative reforms and anti-corruption measures, there are persistent challenges in areas such as judicial independence, media pluralism, legal certainty, and civil society rights.

Notwithstanding his many political failures, such as the Crusade to Nicopolis in 1396, the involvement of Sigismund of Luxembourg in the short-lived, but nevertheless historical reunification of the Christian Churches cannot be discounted.