The EU’s Viktor Orbán problem: 9 times Hungarian
leader has been a thorn in Brussels’ side
Ahead of a crucial European summit at which the
Hungarian PM could wreak havoc, POLITICO looks back at the biggest issues in
his relationship with the EU.
JANUARY 31,
2024 4:00 AM CET
BY NICOLAS
CAMUT, JACOPO BARIGAZZI, BARBARA MOENS AND STUART LAU
BRUSSELS —
It’s time for another showdown.
European
leaders are bracing for yet another confrontation with Hungary’s turbulent
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán when they convene in Brussels later this week to
discuss a €50 billion lifeline for Ukraine.
The
critical Ukraine aid package, which is backed by every EU leader except for
Orbán, is just the latest in a long list of disputes between the European Union
and Hungary.
In case you
couldn’t keep track, POLITICO looked back at some of the biggest issues in
Budapest’s relationship with Brussels.
Putin bromance
Much of the
friction between Hungary and the rest of the bloc stems from Orbán’s proximity
to Vladimir Putin, which the Hungarian prime minister has made no effort to
hide.
As Ukraine
was stuck in a grueling counteroffensive last October, Orbán defied the EU
consensus by traveling to Beijing for a meeting with the Russian president.
EU
diplomats said they tried — in vain — to stop the Hungarian leader from showing
up at a Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) meeting and standing next to Putin.
In their
meeting, Orbán told Putin that “Hungary has never sought to confront Russia.
Rather, the opposite is true: Hungary has always pursued the goal of building
and expanding the best communication.”
The meeting
ended with a handshake between Orbán and Putin in front of the cameras — a
public display of friendship that sparked fury in other European capitals, as
it was perceived as undermining the bloc’s unified support to Ukraine.
Russia sanctions
Orbán’s
bromance with Putin isn’t just for show: His country also has deep economic
ties with Moscow, notably in the energy sector.
It’s no
wonder, then, that Hungary has been dragging its feet at every turn when
negotiating the various rounds of sanctions the EU has implemented against
Russia since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in
February 2022.
If the EU’s
latest sanctions package against Russia, adopted in December, does not include
restrictions on nuclear power, that is mostly because of Budapest’s opposition
to such a move.
Orbán has
said he would veto sanctions against the Russian nuclear sector, because his
country relies on atomic fuel from Russia, and is even expanding its only
nuclear power plant with help from Moscow’s state-owned nuclear energy company,
Rosatom.
With EU
countries currently negotiating a 13th package of sanctions, which is rumored
to include sanctions on aluminum, the Hungarian authorities have once again
warned that they considered the nuclear sector a red line.
“Hungary
will not support such sanctions” if nuclear energy is included, Foreign
Minister Péter Szijjártó said last week.
Sweden’s NATO bid
Aside from
blocking a range of EU files, Hungary is also the only member of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) which has not yet approved Sweden’s bid to
join the military alliance.
Orbán has
officially backed Sweden’s candidacy, which needs to be validated by the
Hungarian parliament.
The vote is
supposed to be a formality: The ruling right-wing Fidesz party holds a
comfortable majority in the Hungarian National Assembly, and Orbán has said the
vote would take place “at the first possible opportunity.”
But László
Kövér, the Hungarian parliament’s speaker and a close ally of Orbán, is in no
rush to put the vote on the chamber’s agenda.
Last week,
Kövér hinted that he would not request an extraordinary parliamentary session
before parliament reconvenes for its spring session, which isn’t until February
26.
“I do not
feel that there is any urgency, and I do not think that there is any
exceptional situation,” Kövér told local media.
In
parallel, Orbán requested a meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson
to “exchange views on all issues of common interest, including … our future
cooperation in the field of security and defense as allies and partners.”
The two
leaders could meet on the margins of this week’s European summit — but
Hungary’s sluggishness to greenlight Sweden’s accession to the military bloc
has already prompted criticism from other EU member countries.
Israeli settlers
Hungary is
one of the EU countries holding back European sanctions against extremist
Israeli settlers such as a visa ban to forbid travel to Europe, amid a surge of
violence in the West Bank since the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
The idea of
sanctions was initially proposed in December by the EU’s top diplomat, Josep
Borrell.
But member
countries are deeply divided on the topic. Hungary, notably, is amongst
Israel’s staunchest allies within the bloc — together with Austria and the
Czech Republic.
Sanctions
on the extremist settlers are not likely to see the light of day anytime soon,
two EU diplomats said, even though the U.S. already announced visa bans for
extremist Israeli settlers in December. “One can hardly accuse them of being
anti-Israeli,” said one of the diplomats, who were granted anonymity to speak
freely.
Ukraine military aid
Budapest
has a “long-standing position” under which “Hungary is not delivering arms to
Ukraine,” Hungary’s EU ambassador said to his colleagues during a meeting last
Wednesday, according to an EU diplomat.
And for a
long time, Hungary has dragged its feet over the eighth tranche of military aid
to Ukraine, some €500 million for partial reimbursement of weapons provided to
Kyiv through the European Peace Facility, an off-budget EU fund.
But last
week, Hungary softened its line on the setting up of the Ukraine Assistance
Fund (UAF) to send weapons to Ukraine, a dedicated tool under the EPF.
Hopes are
that this means a new €5 billion top-up for the EPF in military aid for Ukraine
can soon be agreed.
Media freedom
Hungary was
among the fiercest opponents of a new EU rulebook aiming to protect media
freedoms.
Hungary,
where Orbán’s Fidesz party controls 80 percent of the country’s media according
to Reporters Without Borders, is among the main targets of the upcoming
regulation, which aims to secure media independence against political pressure.
The new
rules do not include fines for countries that do not respect them. But European
Commission Vice President Věra Jourová has said there could be “high penalties”
for member countries that fail to abide, hinting that the EU’s executive body
could take them to the Court of Justice through a so-called infringement
procedure — legal proceedings that the Commission can launch against countries
which do not respect EU law.
The new
rules have been approved by EU institutions and will fully enter into force in
2025.
Rule of law
Orbán’s
defiance against the EU isn’t limited to Ukraine — the prime minister, who has
been in power since 2010, is also embroiled in a long-standing dispute with
Brussels over the rule of law in Hungary.
In December
2022, the European Commission froze about €22 billion of EU cohesion funds
destined for Hungary.
Of these,
€10.2 billion were freed last December, when the EU’s executive assessed that
Budapest had implemented some of the judicial reforms it had set as a
precondition to free the cash.
But some
€11.7 billion remain frozen due to Brussels’ concerns about democratic
backsliding and the rule of law in the country.
This
includes issues in the awarding of public contracts, restrictions on academic
freedoms, a “child protection law” widely viewed as homophobic and the
treatment of asylum seekers.
The row
over the so-called child protection law has turned into legal action, as 15
member countries and the European Parliament have joined a lawsuit brought by
the Commission against Hungary in front of the Court of Justice of the European
Union, on the grounds that the regulation is in breach of EU values.
On top of
that, Hungary is waiting to access €10.4 billion in grants and cheap loans from
the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund, for which it will have to implement a
series of anti-corruption measures.
Grain row
Together
with Poland and Slovakia, Hungary last September rebelled against a decision
from the Commission to remove restrictions on grain imports from war-ravaged
Ukraine.
The three
countries, which all border Ukraine, then claimed the EU’s decision threatened
the livelihood of their farmers, who were faced with a sudden influx of cheaper
Ukrainian products.
“Ukrainian
agricultural products destined for #Africa are flooding Central European
markets,” Orbán wrote at the time on X, formerly Twitter.
“The
bureaucrats in Brussels are turning a blind eye to the problems of European
farmers once again, so Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are extending the ban on
[Ukrainian] imports on a national basis,” the prime minister added.
Budapest
has since maintained its position, despite facing pressure from both the
Commission and Ukraine — which has filed a lawsuit with the World Trade
Organization (WTO) — to lift the ban.
Ukraine aid
It’s the
hottest sticking point in the list — and the one EU leaders hope to solve later
this week.
At the last
EU summit in December, Orbán vetoed a €50 billion package meant to provide
Ukraine with a financial lifeline over the next four years. The package
required unanimous support from EU leaders, and Orbán was the only one to
oppose it.
Since then,
the Hungarian strongman has engaged in a merciless tug-of-war with the rest of
the bloc to extract as many concessions as possible in exchange for his
support.
Hungary has
offered several options, all of which would effectively give Orbán the right to
block EU funding to Ukraine at a later stage — a possibility that is out of the
question for other EU countries.
Ahead of
the meeting of European leaders this week, several compromises are being
floated. These include a proposal from the Commission to create an “emergency
brake” that would permit any country opposing Ukraine funding to delay payments
and push back discussions at a summit of EU leaders.
For now, it
is unclear which options leaders will favor. But they could also decide to play
hardball.
Another
possibility that is gaining momentum among diplomats in Brussels who are fed up
with Hungary is to resort to Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union, an
explosive measure that would permit the suspension of Orbán’s right to vote on
EU decisions.
Mathieu
Pollet, Bartosz Brzeziński, Gregorio Sorgi and Alessandro Ford contributed to
this report.
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