Hungarian Conservative

The strategic agenda, which outlines the political priorities and main strategic objectives for the EU’s new actors over the next five years, is a crucial document that must be developed prior to institutional changes, the European Parliament elections of June 2024, and the appointment of the European Commission.

Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and Fabrice Leggeri, former head of the EU border agency Frontex and current lead candidate for the right-wing National Rally (RN) party participated in a public discussion held in the European Parliament on Tuesday. They shared their concerns regarding migration and the newly adopted Migration Pact, agriculture, and green policies.

The European Parliament today adopted a new regulation reforming the EU’s migration and asylum policy, including measures for expedited asylum processing and solidarity in distributing migrants among member states. The pact, strongly opposed by Hungary, aims to relocate asylum seekers, provide financial support to heavily burdened countries, and establish uniform procedures for refugee recognition and protection.

‘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 government has recently announced a significant legal initiative: under the Hungarian Council presidency, the creation of a new rule of law assessment procedure overseeing EU institutions could be put on the agenda.

Changing decision-making in areas crucial to state sovereignty would create a specific system of majority tyranny where, although it would be easier to adopt a Council position and bring together a majority of votes, political divisions would be further deepened and the democratic functioning and legitimacy of the Union as an institution would be undermined, and the long-term consequences of this would be unforeseeable in today’s already uncertain times of crisis.