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.
Weeks of farmers’ protests across Europe seem to have broken Brussels, with the European Commission making significant concessions to disgruntled farmers. However, quick symptomatic treatments will not resolve the deep-rooted problems of European agriculture.
The new rules prohibit AI applications that could violate citizens’ rights. These include biometric categorization based on sensitive personal data or the creation of facial recognition databases using images downloaded from the internet or closed-circuit television networks.
The adopted amendments to the Regulation on Wholesale Energy Market Integrity and Transparency, designed to respond to the energy crisis, cover new trading practices such as algorithmic trading and strengthen reporting and monitoring requirements to protect consumers from market abuse.
Throughout the negotiations, Hungary consistently advocated for regulations that support European businesses and developments without unnecessarily increasing red tape, while providing adequate flexibility for member states.
According to Italian press reports, on the margins of the latest EU summit Viktor Orbán indicated that Fidesz is ready to join the ECR after the elections. The move would significantly swell the ranks of the ECR, considering that Fidesz is projected to win 14 seats (of Hungary’s 21), sending quite a sizable delegation to the European Parliament.
A brief review of the European policy of the Hungarian Government and of that of the domestic opposition.
Debates about Hungary consistently bring to the forefront the Hungarophobic positions and opinions of the Left in the European Parliament. In the current session, left-wing MEPs targeted not only Viktor Orbán but also Ursula von der Leyen.
In an interview with public Kossuth radio, Deutsch contended that the Hungarian ‘dollar left’ actively participates Brussels’ illegitimate, coercive behaviour. He referenced former Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, who admitted over a year ago in a radio interview that he had supplied fabricated arguments for political blackmail to the Brussels bureaucracy, which served as the basis for initiating legal proceedings against Hungary.
In his regular interview on public radio, the Hungarian Prime Minister pledged to defend Hungary’s borders, to resist pressure from Brussels aiming to change his government’s policies, insisted that Ukraine cannot win on the battlefield, and announced a new National Consultation.
In the statement, the MEPs said that the four left-wing groupings of the EP held a joint press conference on Monday at which Germany’s Green MEP Daniel Freund and Hungary’s left-wing MEP Katalin Cseh ‘repeated their usual false accusations and lies’ which, according to the Fidesz MEPs, had been repeated by ‘the Hungarian dollar Left led by Ferenc Gyurcsány in the recent period’.
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.
Szijjártó emphasized that Hungary wants a strong EU, but this is only possible if member states are strong enough. However, for this to happen, nations need to stick to their traditions, their history, and have the freedom to live their religion.
According to Professor Durodié, the EU is a fundamentally anti-democratic set of institutions that excludes the voice of the people. It is a project that lost its sense of history and therefore does no longer know where it is going to.
She is resigning to take an active part in the campaign in the 2024 European Parliamentary election. She is also rumoured to be leading the Fidesz EP list, although that is yet to be confirmed. The minister believes that she has fulfilled all the tasks she took on when she was appointed.
According to the EP’s position, developers of general-purpose AI systems would only be able to market their products on the EU market after assessing and mitigating potential risks and registering their models in the EU database.
Ákos Bence Gát told Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet that Hungary raised the issue of creating a rule of law instrument during its presidency, which would ensure that the rule of law criteria, for which member states are held accountable, are also upheld within EU institutions. This caused panic.
Gáll-Pelcz, a 61-year-old engineer and economist, former EP Vice-President, a mother of three, has proved that she is both a competent leader and also highly qualified for a seat on the European Court of Auditors. She was certified as an international tax expert in 2004. Her qualifications, including being a chartered tax expert, clearly made her a suitable candidate for a role that is mostly related to EU taxation and auditing.
According to the minister, representatives presented the delegation with the regulations and fundamental aspects of the spending of EU funds, followed by questions from the committee members. However, Navracsics noted that it was apparent the delegation had not read the background materials sent to them in advance for more detailed information. Also, in some cases, the opinion of certain representatives was heavily influenced by political biases, resulting in occasional factual errors during their questioning.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.