Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said he was against stripping Hungary of its rotating presidency of the EU Council, saying it could be ‘counterproductive’ and even put Budapest in a ‘privileged position’.
Hungary is supposed to take over the Council presidency for six months in July 2024, following Spain in the second half of 2023 and Belgium in the first half of 2024.
However, the EU Parliament has expressed its concern over the Hungarian presidency with regard to the rule of law issues in Viktor Orban’s government in a recent resolution it adopted. It also asked other EU member states to find a solution.
De Croo, however, prefers to remain cautious. On Tuesday during a Belgian Chamber’s committee, he said that he shares the Parliament’s concern regarding the rule of law in Hungary, but that depriving the country of the presidency was “absolutely not a good idea.”
He then underlined the fact that the presidency was not only a privilege but also a duty.
In that sense, preventing Hungary from being at the head of the Council could be a move that “puts Hungary in a privileged position,” since the presidency obliges a member state to “show its hand” and “be a conciliator”.
Indeed, the presidency is supposed to be transparent about its intentions, and since its goal is to find consensus among Member states in the Council, the country that presides is supposed to be able to foster dialogue, build bridges and solve conflicts that may arise. However, several member states question the ability of Hungary to be able to do so.
In a podcast published last Friday by the Review of Democracy, Alberto Alemanno, Jean Monnet Professor of European Union law at HEC Paris and visiting Professor at the College of Europe, told that there is a concern about Hungary, and in the future, Poland, “running the show at the European level might further damage the international reputation and standing of the Union on the external stage”.
And at the EU level, “what kind of agenda setting will happen under those two presidencies?”, he questions, underlining that the Hungarian presidency will be followed by the Polish one, “at the beginning of the new policy cycle”, and that “they will be defining the next European Commission legislative working program”.
“How much interinstitutional fighting might occur? I think that this might bring us to an absolutely terra incognita,” he added, emphasizing the fact that “all of a sudden, the calendar of the Council, and all the possible work that happens on a daily basis, might be questioned”.
John Morijn, Chair in law and politics in international relations and assistant professor of European Human Rights Law at the University of Groningen, added in the same podcast:
“We’re basically questioning whether a member state like Hungary and Poland that, according to the Council itself is worthy of an Article 7 TEU procedure and according to the Council itself is worthy of billions and billions of euros being suspended, is at all capable of taking up that role, as a matter of good governance.”
(Anne-Sophie Gayet | EURACTIV.com)
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