Tag: Hungarian EU Presidency

The European Union is moving closer to a deal on its derivatives crackdown that could risk confrontation with the US, which has warned it is straying from an agreed global approach.

Of all EU countries' embassies in Libya, only Hungary has a diplomatic presence in Tripoli and provides information to the EU. The European Commission told EurActiv that the situation on the ground was "very difficult" and that the EU was "paying tribute" to the Hungarian Presidency for the work they are doing.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán presented in Brussels yesterday (14 April) his country's accomplishments halfway through its EU presidency. Pre-empting tough questions on Hungarian internal politics, Orbán lashed out at some of Europe's "absurdities".

Feeble disapproval was voiced at a presentation of Hungary's draft new constitution in the European Parliament yesterday (29 March), with the organisers – from Hungary's ruling centre-right parties – benefiting from the absence of socialist MEPs.

The new Hungarian constitution will be ready on 15 March and will be adopted a month later, its main author, centre-right MEP József Szájer – who wrote part of it on his iPad – told EurActiv in an interview. The country's opposition claims the procedure for adopting the new constitution is illegitimate and the controversy could impact upon the Hungarian EU Presidency.

The centre-right Hungarian government of Viktor Orbán is "criminalising 20 years of democratic transition in the country," a prominent Hungarian philosopher told the European Parliament yesterday (1 March).  MEPs close to the Orbán government denounced the speaker as "a liar".

Hungary has made international critics of its media law look "ridiculous" and shown that it will not take orders from abroad, including from the EU, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said yesterday (14 February). Hungary is the current holder of the EU's six-month rotating presidency.

Members of the European Parliament gave a frosty reception to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán yesterday (19 January) in Strasbourg, where he came to deliver the traditional presentation of his country's EU presidency programme.

MEPs from the European Parliament's liberal ALDE group have called for the venue of a meeting to be changed from Budapest to Brussels, as a sign of protest against a controversial media law recently adopted in Hungary, the country holding the rotating EU presidency.

The Hungarian government is in fact bringing real democratic change to the country – something that didn't happen 20 years ago, Hungarian MEP György Schöpflin of the ruling Fidesz party told EurActiv in an interview..

The accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the border-free Schengen space has been postponed, a Hungarian minister announced yesterday (6 January). After a nervous reaction from Bucharest, the statement was soon denied by the Hungarian authorities, who hold the EU's rotating presidency. EurActiv's network reports.

Hungary's EU presidency will focus on reclaiming some visibility for member states' presidencies after Belgium's turn – which saw the country move into the background to allow Herman Van Rompuy to lead as European Council president – and the contentious EU budget process for 2014-2020, writes global intelligence company STRATFOR in an analysis.

Controversial legislation recently adopted by Hungary's ruling majority has apparently been straining relations with the European Commission since the country took over the rotating EU presidency at the beginning of the year.

With the Hungarian EU presidency in the first half of 2011, followed by the Polish in the second half, the Union will live a "Central Europe Presidency year," Hungarian Foreign Minister János Martonyi said.

The Belgian EU Presidency has been a success and is an example for the incoming Hungarians, while the Lisbon Treaty has brought the rotating presidency back to basics, write Steven Van Hecke and Peter Bursens from the Research Group on European and International Politics at the University of Antwerp in an exclusive commentary for EurActiv.

Hungary, which takes over the European Union's rotating presidency in January, sees little appetite for substantial changes to the EU's guiding treaty, its European affairs minister said yesterday (26 October).