On Thursday 19 September, the Hungarian Minister for European Affairs, János Bóka, announced that he would be organising “two discussions on the future of the European Union” at the General Affairs Council meetings in “November and December”.
These discussions will contribute to the reflection on the internal reforms that the European Union will have to carry out “in parallel” with the negotiations for its enlargement to include the candidate countries, said Mr Bóka when presenting the priorities of the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council to the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs.
He noted that in June, the European Council had asked the European Commission to present, in spring 2025, a detailed assessment of EU policies in four areas: - values and respect for the rule of law; - competitiveness and economic sovereignty; - the future of the EU budget; - institutional governance. European leaders will return to the subject in June 2025.
Apart from the question of the rule of law (see other news), the discussion turned into a dialogue of the deaf between, on the one hand, numerous MEPs reminding Hungary of its initiatives and positions that undermine the necessary loyal cooperation with other EU countries and, on the other, the Hungarian minister rejecting these accusations out of hand and wishing to focus his speech on the priorities of the EU Council Presidency.
Responding to Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D, Spanish), Sandro Gozi (Renew Europe, Italian), Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA, German) and Anthony Smith (The Left, French), who criticised the Hungarian government for undermining the rule of law, Mr Bóka regretted that his country had not been invited to the European Parliament to explain its approach during the previous legislature. Parliamentary committee chairman, Sven Simon, promised that this would be done soon.
Questioned on the principle of subsidiarity by Marieke Ehlers (PfE, German), the Hungarian minister stressed the importance of respecting the constitutional traditions of the Member States, believing that the national parliaments’ monitoring of European work was not sufficiently exploited. He added that Hungary supported any dialogue aimed at ensuring respect for these traditions, as called for by several Councils of State and Supreme Courts of Member States. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)