The Council of the EU adopted a declaration on promoting Jewish life and combating antisemitism during Hungary’s EU Presidency while the country being one of the safest in the EU for Jewish community.
At an informal meeting of the ministers of EU Member States responsible for employment and social policy in Budapest, Hungary, Minister of State Sándor Czomba said that increasing the competitiveness of the European Union is ‘the most important challenge’ of the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Minister of Finance Mihály Varga of Hungary shared with a reporter what was on the agenda of the ECOFIN meeting in Luxembourg. The recovery of Europe’s economy, aid to Ukraine financed by loans, climate finance, and the upcoming World Bank and IMF meeting were the topics discussed by Europe’s top financial leaders.
On Wednesday Viktor Orbán presented the priorities of the Hungarian EU Presidency to the plenary in Strasbourg; however, instead of addressing the pressing challenges facing Europe, MEPs—led by Ursula von der Leyen—seized the opportunity to launch a personal political attack on the Hungarian Prime Minister, demonstrating that the left-wing majority does not allow for a professional debate.
Since 2010 Hungary has seen its crime rates drop by more than half, a stark contrast to rising crime figures across much of Europe. At a press conference marking the tenth anniversary of the National Crime Prevention Council, Bence Rétvári, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, detailed the achievements of Hungarian law enforcement and the initiatives that have helped in preventing and combating crime.
Achieving the demographic turnaround will take a long time and a lot of work, but Hungary wants to take the first steps already in the coming months. Finding solutions to existing problems will be one of the key objectives of the Hungarian EU Presidency in the second half of 2024, using the EU demographic toolkit as a starting point.
In his speech at the Ludovika University campus in Budapest Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Hungary has taken over the rotating presidency of the EU Council in uniquely hard times. He warned about Europe’s decreasing level of competitiveness, and stressed Hungary’s need to remain economically neutral. He nailed down that Hungary needs to conduct itself on the new bipolar global economic stage based on its own national interests.
Prior to the start of Hungary’s current presidency of the Council of the EU, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó stated that the country plans to initiate the opening of a new chapter in accession negotiations with Serbia. This intention was also extended to the entire region, as the Hungarian foreign minister highlighted the country’s aim to hold intergovernmental talks with all five Western Balkan countries.
‘Although the political forces thinking in terms of a European alternative failed to replace the Brussels Grand Coalition in the 2024 EP elections, there is a real chance that they could organize themselves into a new right-wing pole in the next five years, which could bring about a real systemic change in Brussels politics.’
The conference featured research by Italian author and journalist Thomas Fazi, whose report ‘The Silent Coup’ was recently published by MCC Brussels. In his report Fazi argues that the sovereign debt crisis, the refugee crisis, the Brexit referendum, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine all contributed to the widening of the European Commission’s competences.