Members of several EU governments met with activists of Hungarian NGOs on sidelines of their Budapest meeting

Representatives of several EU member states stressed that they had met with representatives of Hungarian NGOs on the sidelines of the EU ministers' meeting in Budapest on Monday, but their Hungarian counterpart said this was part of the normal course of business and said that the meeting was not marked by a spirit of boycott.

The rotating presidency welcomed the ministers and state secretaries of member states responsible for EU affairs back to Budapest on 2-3 September with, among other things, a hot-air balloon ride in Budapest's Városliget. Practically all EU institutions took a break in August for the summer holidays, including the Council of Ministers, the presidency of which the Hungarian government took over in July. Their meeting in Budapest on Monday and Tuesday was the first one after the break.

Bóka: The meeting was not marked by a spirit of boycott

One of the questions at issue at the meeting, which opened with a museum visit and a working dinner on Monday and continued with an informal session on Tuesday, was whether the mood around the presidency would calm down. Days after Hungary took over the rotating presidency in early, July Viktor Orbán's "peace mission" featuring logos of the presidency and ambiguous remarks blew the fuse in the majority of member states. This led to several governments and the European Commission, the EU's proposal-making body, choosing not to be represented at the highest level at the Council's Budapest meetings. The meeting which started on Monday was the first major Hungarian event after the summer break, as the foreign ministers' meeting in late August was effectively moved from Budapest to Brussels.

Towards the end of the "peace mission", however, the Presidency logo was removed from the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Facebook posts, and Viktor Orbán essentially ended his peace campaign with a letter of summary, while some member states talked about only a temporary boycott.

The Germans, for example, had previously indicated that they would not be sending ministers to Budapest but according to Euractiv, this was only supposed to apply to the season before the summer break, in July. This week's meeting was attended by Anna Lührmann, State Secretary for European Affairs, who also attended the last formal Council in Brussels just before the Hungarian presidency began. Subjects that are not dealt with at ministerial level by an administration are usually handled by State Secretaries, as Hungarian EU Affairs Minister János Bóka also pointed out at his post-meeting press conference.

The meeting was not marked by a spirit of boycott at all. The message from those who came was not that they did not want to cooperate with the Hungarian presidency, quite the opposite, he said of the meeting in response to a question from Telex. According to the minister, more than half of the member states – 16 including him – were represented by senior political leaders, i.e. at least state secretaries. Only one country sent a department head and two delegated their permanent representative in Brussels. (Permanent representatives work at the preparatory level under the ministers in the Council.) Bóka confirmed that the European Commission indeed did not send a commissioner, only the deputy of a directorate-general. However, he said that both the representatives of the European Commission and of the member states had expressed their willingness to cooperate and welcomed the fact that the Hungarian presidency had raised common issues.

A deputy prime minister also came, but spoke about the importance of debate

This image is somewhat tarnished by the fact that several of those who came to Tuesday's meeting indicated their reservations. "It was important for me to be here in Budapest today," Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said. There were discussions about whether they should boycott the meeting, whether it would be better to stay away, but he believed that would have been a mistake. And since they were here, they wanted to make sure they were "loud". He said that continuing the debates, being honest, speaking up, and complaining if we disagree with something was important. It was also important to remember that respect for the rule of law among member states was not guaranteed, he added.

“I will ask my colleague János if he is planning a trip to Moscow tomorrow, because it seems to have become a habit among Hungarian politicians.”

– he said.

He stressed that along with Hadja Lahbib, Belgium's EU Affairs Minister, and Ireland's Carroll MacNeil, they had held talks with representatives of Hungarian civil society in Budapest. German State Secretary Anna Lührmann also emphasized that she had met with representatives of NGOs the day before who complained about the "massive problems" with upholding the EU's rule of law standards, even though these principles were good for Hungarians and provided a competitive advantage for the EU, she said.

When Telex asked Bóka if he considered this to be an indication of something, he said he saw it as part of the normal course of business for his EU colleagues to meet with civic activists. They all informed him about their discussions and experiences, it was all done in the spirit of full transparency. "I don't regard that as a problem", he said, because everyone should form an opinion on what is happening in Hungary from first-hand experience and from all sources, he said, adding that he would give his full support to that end.

On the agenda: topics close to the government’s heart

The informal meeting was particularly interesting because one of the topics was strengthening competitiveness and the rule of law through better regulation. The meeting was lead by the Hungarian government, which has had part of its EU funds blocked by the Council since December 2022, after the body stated that there were problems in Hungary which "constituted a breach of the rule of law" (the procedure adopted on the Commission's recommendation is still ongoing and could lead to a permanent loss of around €1 billion in mid-December).

However, members of the Hungarian government and Fidesz have repeatedly indicated – for example on the issue of the withheld payments – that they believe the EU institutions themselves are not abiding by these principles. Examining how to hold EU bodies to account on the rule of law has also been included in the presidency programme. Bóka said that there was agreement at the meeting that there was room for improvement in many areas of legislation, such as "taking into account the specificities of the member states".

The meeting focused mainly on strengthening the EU's competitiveness, which is a recurring theme for the Hungarian government and therefore a priority in the presidency programme. One of the first things the Hungarian government did when it took over the Council presidency was to put related proposals on the table, which, within the subject of competitiveness, mainly focused on what is at the heart of the government’s industrial policy: electric cars. In addition to "electromobility", the current meeting also discussed connectivity and how to reduce dependence on countries outside the EU, Bóka said.

The government also included demographics in the presidency programme and tried to tie it to competitiveness. On this point, however, the EU's powers are limited, as Bóka also acknowledged, so member state governments shared their own measures with one another and also discussed the "integration of third-country nationals".

The minister said that their objective was to have the outlines of a package on competitiveness in place for the informal summit of heads of state and government in Budapest in November.

Cover photo: Council of the European Union / European Union