Hungary believes that flexibility, technological neutrality and regulatory predictability are essential for environmental policy if Europe is to remain competitive, the country’s environment state secretary said in Brussels amid renewed EU debates on green regulation.
Italy has joined Belgium, Bulgaria and Malta in resisting the European Commission’s plan to use frozen Russian assets as collateral for a €210 billion loan to Ukraine, warning of profound legal and financial risks. The pushback intensifies scrutiny of Brussels’s decision to invoke emergency powers to sidestep expected vetoes from Hungary and Slovakia.
Ursula von der Leyen claims only voters decide a nation’s leaders—yet recent EU actions tell a very different story. From Romania’s annulled election to Germany’s institutional crackdown on AfD and France’s judicial assault on Marine Le Pen, the Union shows an increasingly authoritarian instinct that undermines democratic choice.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accused Brussels of ‘systematically raping European law’ after the Commission triggered an emergency clause to indefinitely freeze Russian assets—bypassing unanimity and clearing the way ahead of its controversial Ukraine reparations loan.
In an open letter to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia has called on the EU to abandon the dogmatic approach to climate policy and chase the net zero agenda for the sake of the struggling European industry, especially the automotive sector. The letter was co-signed by five other PMs, including Viktor Orbán of Hungary and Giorgia Meloni of Italy.
POLITICO Brussels reports that Belgium may soon be treated like Hungary—isolated, ignored and punished—simply for refusing Ursula von der Leyen’s EUR 165 billion Ukraine loan scheme. The message is unmistakable: in today’s EU, disagreement is no longer tolerated, and the system is shifting toward open coercion.
‘Some argue, however, that the EU’s “solidarity” pool is nothing but a punishment for those countries that handled migration well over the years.’
The EU has spent the past decade dismissing Hungary’s warnings about migration and sovereignty. Now Washington under Trump is sounding the same alarm, urging Europe to stop its downward spiral—but Brussels responds with indignation instead of introspection, accelerating its decline.
Hungary will challenge EU migration and energy decisions while launching a new solar storage programme and major infrastructure projects, Minister Gergely Gulyás announced following Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, which focused on economic and EU-related issues.
Hungary has become a net contributor to the European Union for the first time since its 2004 accession, as frozen EU funds continue to distort the financial balance. With Budapest paying more into the common budget than it receives, the economic impact of the European Commission’s political blackmail campaign is increasingly visible ahead of the 2026 election.