European Parliament Says Hungary Unfit for EU Presidency

A resolution adopted by the European Parliament questions Hungary’s ability to fulfill the rotating EU presidency in a credible manner given the backsliding of rule of law in the country. Budapest dismissed the non-binding resolution as political pressuring and is convinced that the Hungarian presidency will take place as planned.

Hungary is set to assume the rotating, 6-month presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2024. Despite the relatively distant date, the European Parliament has started raising doubts over the country’s ability to chair EU meetings and drive forward legislation in a credible manner. MEPs passed a non-binding resolution passed this week that questions how Hungary will be able to take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU credibly “given its lack of compliance with EU law and values, and the principle of sincere cooperation.” By a vote of 442 to 144, with 33 MEPs abstaining, EU lawmakers expressed doubt that Hungary's government was up to the task, given ongoing concerns about the state of the rule of law in the country. The resolution calls on the European Council to find a proper solution while stressing that parliament could take “appropriate measures” if such a solution is not found. At the same time, the European Parliament is aware that it has limited power to curb Hungary's presidency. "Even experts that I consulted are not very clear on what can be done," Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, a Green member of the European Parliament from France, said at a press conference on Wednesday. "So we need to invent."

Political pressuring
Balázs Hidvéghi, a ruling party MEP argued in the European Parliament that those attacking Hungary do not like the fact that the country is going its own way and dares to say no to Brussels when a proposal is wrong or harmful.
“Hungary is a free and independent nation- we will not let a few unbridled left-wing extremists drag us into war or tell us how to raise our children,” the MEP said. He added that those who are trying to take the presidency of the Council away from Hungary are the ones who are blatantly violating EU law and the treaty.
Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga told reporters it was "complete nonsense" that Hungary may lose its turn at the presidency. "It is just the political pressuring of the European Parliament," she said, adding that the European Parliament did not have the right to get involved in the management of the EU presidency.
In a letter to the European Commission’s president and commissioners, MEPs of the European Conservatives and Reformists, Identity and Democracy, European People’s Party, and the non-aligned members of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party called on the European Commission to abide by the procedural rules laid down in the Regulation and reject the European Parliament’s attempt to interfere, which seeks to influence the European Commission to make a decision in line with its political position.
Despite a deterioration in bilateral relations over the war in Ukraine, Poland took Hungary’s side in the matter. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki expressed hope that it was “just a kind of ‘shouting’ by the European Parliament, which he said would be in open violation of the most important form of EU rules, the founding treaties. “Such a destruction of the functioning of the European Union is not only a dead end, but a road to the abyss,” Morawiecki said at a press conference.

Brokering consensus
EU member states hold the EU presidency for six months in a preset order. Their main mandate as EU president is to help broker consensus among the member states, which is often a tall order. During this 6-month period, the presidency chairs meetings at every level in the Council, helping to ensure the continuity of the EU's work in the Council. Member states holding the presidency work together closely in groups of three, called 'trios'. This system was introduced by the Lisbon Treaty in 2009. The trio sets long-term goals and prepares a common agenda determining the topics and major issues that will be addressed by the Council over an 18-month period. On the basis of this program, each of the three countries prepares its own more detailed 6-month program.