Hungary begins its six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union on 1 July during a period of extraordinary circumstances and challenges. During its presidency, Hungary aims to focus on seven priorities to answer the EU’s most pressing economic, security, and social issues.
The European Union will support arms shipments to Ukraine using a portion of the frozen Russian assets. The foreign ministers of the Member States decided on this issue on Monday, excluding Hungary from the decision-making process. Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó described the decision as a ‘shameless disregard of European rules’.
Barna Pál Zsigmond went on Hungarian public media to talk about Hungary’s upcoming presidency of the Council of the European Union. He named restoring Europe’s economic competitiveness and advancing the Western Balkan nations towards EU accession as the administration’s two major agenda points for the six-month presidency.
According to the graphic shared by the Prime Minister’s political director Balázs Orbán, Hungary’s slogan will be ‘Make Europe Great Again,’ or ‘MEGA’ for short, for the upcoming presidency of the Council of the European Union. This is an obvious allusion to US President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan ‘Make America Great Again,’ which he is using for his presidential campaign as well.
Orbán seems to have reached a compromise with exiting Dutch PM Mark Rutte about the latter’s NATO SecGen candidacy. But as for nominating von der Leyen again as next Commission President, Orbán, did not mince his words last night. He declared on X that ‘the will of the European people was ignored’ on Monday evening, and stated that the EPP eventually teamed up with ‘the socialists and the liberals’.
Before the decision, Karsai had a conversation with Gergely Gulyás, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office, who argued that, as a religious person, he could not support the taking of a human life.
The European Court of Justice has ordered Hungary to pay €200 million for ‘failing to respect’ EU law regarding procedures for granting international protection and returning illegally staying non-EU nationals. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called the decision outrageous and unacceptable.
The European Commission is planning to impose unprecedentedly high punitive tariffs on all-electric cars imported from China. The plan has elicited strong objections from several member states, including Germany and Hungary.
A turnabout in the Hungarian stance seems unlikely at the moment. The Hungarian government has consistently vetoed further military assistance to Ukraine as well, and will most probably not change course regarding Ukrainian accession to the EU either under the Hungarian rotating presidency.
One of the main priorities of the Hungarian EU Presidency, which starts in July, is to increase the EU’s competitiveness. Preparations are already well underway, and on Tuesday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with the leaders of the European Roundtable for Industry to gather their advice and develop an effective Hungarian programme.