The Presidency of the EPP, made up of President Joseph Daul and the ten vice-presidents of the European Christian Democrat family, will discuss the initiatives and controversial stances of the Hungarian leader, Viktor Orbán, on the morning of Saturday 29 April.
This debate will take place just before the summit of the leaders of the EPP, which will in turn be held shortly before the start of the European summit of the Twenty-Seven on Brexit (see article).
Orbán had multiple stand-offs with the European Union in 2011 and 2012 with reforms deemed illiberal, regarding the media or on pensioning off judges. He then turned on his partners in 2015 at the height of the migration crisis by refusing to rally behind the mechanisms to relocate asylum seekers, a refusal he sought to justify by holding a referendum on the subject (unsuccessfully).
Recently, new initiatives have led the EU to question the actions of the Hungarian leader, such as the new law on foreign universities, a law at bill stage on foreign NGOs, the law on migrants and their systematic detention and even a national consultation to 'Stop Brussels' (see EUROPE 11773).
One of these actions, the law on foreign universities, was incidentally the subject of infringement proceedings on Wednesday 26 April. Three weeks ago, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, openly criticised the fact that Orbán had launched a consultation on the excesses of 'Brussels' when the ink was barely dry on his signature of the Declaration of Rome, marking the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome at the end of March (see EUROPE 11754).
Exclusion of Fidesz from EPP not on the cards
The discussion scheduled for Saturday morning is not expected to end with the leader of Fidesz being excluded from the EPP family. “No EPP leaders have yet called for this exclusion”, a source stressed.
In Parliament, increasing numbers of EPP members have expressed concerns at the actions of the Hungarian Prime Minister, which some of them, such as Luxembourg's Frank Engel, feel may even call for a rule of law monitoring procedure ('article 7') to be triggered against the country.
However, Manfred Weber, leader of the EPP group, seems to have ruled out this option. Whilst criticising Orbán's actions against the Central European University, he refused to be dictated to as to who should or should not be in the EPP. He added that he was sure that Orbán would come into line with the Commission's arguments.
The Hungarian authorities have one month to respond to the infringement procedure sent to it by the European Commission. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)