After intense debate in the plenary a day before, on Thursday, June 1st, the European Parliament approved the proposed resolution calling for the Commission and the EU Council to use their powers to block Hungary from assuming the Council’s rotating presidency on July 1st, 2024.
The measure was adopted with 442 votes for and 144 against. Only the two conservative parties (ECR and ID) voted mostly against it, while all leftist parties, including the socialists, liberals, greens, and far-left, as well as the center-right EPP—Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party’s former EP group—overwhelmingly supported the initiative.
“The champions of Europeanness and the rule of law are now trying to take the Council Presidency away from Hungary. However, in doing so, they are the very ones who are blatantly violating EU law and the Treaties,” Hungarian MEP Balázs Hidvéghi said during Wednesday’s debate in the plenary.
“You do not like it when Hungary goes its own way and dares to say no to Brussels when a proposal is wrong or harmful,” the MEP went on, referring to Hungary’s anti-migration and pro-family positions, meant to preserve the country’s unique culture.
You should finally understand: Hungary is a free and independent nation that decides on its own path. The European Parliament is not a superior body of the country.
Apart from pressing the Commission and the Council to clamp down harder on Hungary’s alleged rule of law violations, the document “questions how Hungary will be able to credibly fulfill [its obligations as Council president] in 2024, in view of its non-compliance with EU law and the [European] values,” especially given the presidency’s important role in driving EU legislation, representing the body in relations with other institutions, and “ensuring the continuity of the EU agenda.”
Furthermore, the resolution “asks the Council to find a proper solution as soon as possible [and] recalls that Parliament could take appropriate measures if such a solution is not found.”
As we reported earlier, the representatives of the left-dominated coalition behind authoring the document elaborated on these “appropriate measures” in a press conference on Wednesday, vowing that if their calls remain unanswered by the other two EU bodies, then the Parliament will do everything in its power to reduce cooperation with the Council during Hungary’s term “to a bare minimum,” as well as stripping the Hungarian presidency of most, if not all, opportunities to represent itself in the Parliament.
From a legal standpoint, however, it’s unclear if such an unprecedented move to bar a country from assuming the presidency is even feasible. Furthermore, some countries, including France, already dismissed the entire notion, calling for “neutrality and impartiality” in the matter instead.
The resolution also divided the European Parliament. After Wednesday’s debate, 67 conservative MEPs (mostly belonging to the ECR and ID groups, as well as some independents and a few dissidents from EPP) took a firm stance to defend Hungary’s right to assume the Council presidency in a letter sent directly to the European Commission.
In the letter, the conservative MEPs write that
Legal certainty and the predictable functioning of the institutions are among the most important requirements of the rule of law. Interference by the political group leaders of the European Parliament in a matter outside their remit thus jeopardizes the application of these general principles of law.
We firmly call on the European Commission to abide by the procedural rules laid down in the Regulation and reject the European Parliament’s attempt to interfere, which seeks to influence the European Commission to make a decision in line with its political position.
Kinga Gál, one of the Hungarian MEPs of the ruling Fidesz party called the resolution a “serious blackmail” attempt to get Hungary to change its positions on migration, LGBT issues, and the war in Ukraine. Tamás Deutsch, another Fidesz MEP expressed similar thoughts, saying that
They want Hungary to go in a different direction from the one decided by Hungarian citizens. By identifying even newer issues, they are coming up with new ideas on how to intensify this political blackmail by further means.
