In an interview granted to French magazine Le Point, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán presented the five priorities of his country’s six-month presidency of the Council of the EU, which will begin on 1 July.
The first priority concerns migration. “We disagree with the current pact and want to stop more migrants than it allows,” he explains.
The second priority is Ukraine, even though Budapest is blocking EU decisions on military support for Kyiv and is calling for peace talks. “We would like to have a rational discussion on our involvement in the war between Ukraine and Russia. It is not enough to say ‘Vladimir Putin cannot win’. We need to estimate the cost of our involvement and to clarify our objectives”, explained the prime minister.
Moreover, Mr Orbán felt that the most important factor in the European elections would be “the number of MEPs prepared to go further in the war in Ukraine and the number of those who will be in favour of ending it”—advocating that the “pro-peace” side win.
For the Hungarian leader, it is too soon to negotiate Ukraine’s accession to the EU, since it is first necessary to clarify its borders and its population.
The prime minister also advocated that the EU develop its defence capabilities, believing that there would never be true strategic autonomy if European security is essentially ensured by the Americans. Expressing that he is in favour of the idea of increasing European defence capabilities, Mr Orbán called for [Europeans] to be realistic and to make progress gradually. In his opinion, the first step consists of cooperating at the defence-industry level and then deciding whether we want a separate European pillar within NATO.
“Better cooperation among national armies without the Americans could be envisaged, but that will take time”, he thought. While explaining that it was crucial to fund defence capabilities, he was opposed to the idea of common debt at the EU level.
Hungary’s fourth priority focuses on European competitiveness, with Mr Orbán believing that [the EU] needs to rethink the green transition “before it kills” industry.
Finally, Hungary wants European countries to share best practices—“other than immigration”—in order to handle the demographic crisis. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)