The Hungarian Presidency coincides with the reorganisation of the EU Parliament and the EU Commission following the European elections. In this transitional phase, the Council Presidency has an administrative role with regard to the ongoing negotiations on outstanding legislative dossiers: under the Belgian Presidency, many negotiations were successfully concluded towards the end of the last EU legislative period; hardly any new proposals are to be expected from the EU Commission in the coming months. However, the Hungarian government can use the Council Presidency to set strategic priorities.

Make Europe Great Again?
The motto of the Hungarian EU Presidency is an allusion to the slogan of former US President and current presidential candidate Donald Trump, to whom Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is politically close. The EU Parliament has stated that Hungary is not a democracy but an “electoral autocracy” and has questioned the reliability of the Hungarian government with regard to the presidency.

Within a week of taking over the EU Council Presidency, Viktor Orbán travelled to Kiev, Moscow, Beijing and Washington, addressing the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, felt compelled to clarify on X (Twitter) that the rotating EU Council Presidency has no mandate to speak for the EU in this context. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (now confirmed for a second term) criticized the trip in her speech in the EU Parliament, as did the EU Parliament itself.

Priorities of the Hungarian Presidency
The EU's competitiveness, particularly in relation to the USA and China, is currently on everyone's lips. It is one of the three pillars of the Strategic Agenda 2024 - 2029, which was recently adopted by the European Council. As the first of seven priorities, the Hungarian EU Council Presidency's programme includes a “New European Competitiveness Deal”, which is to be adopted in the coming months. It will have to be analysed in detail what kind of potential impact this new EU focus on competitiveness might have on employees. In this regard, also the announced report, which former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has been commissioned to prepare by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, will have to be analysed.

In addition to the Draghi report, the report presented in April by former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta will also play an important role. Under the title “Much more than a market”, the report proposes a series of measures to deepen the single market, such as a promoting the Capital Markets Union and reducing red tape for companies. AK is critical of the proposals, especially as massive pressure on social, labour and environmental standards is to be expected. Based on the reports by Draghi and Letta, a new horizontal single market strategy is to be developed by the EU Commission. Under the Hungarian Presidency, the new rules on economic governance will also be applied for the first time and the national fiscal policy plans envisaged in this context will have to be drawn up.

Other priorities of the Hungarian Presidency are: reinforcing European defence policy, a consistent and merit-based enlargement policy, stemming illegal migration, shaping the future of cohesion policy, a farmer-centered EU agricultural policy and addressing demographic challenges.

Outstanding legislative dossiers
Important outstanding legislative dossiers, which will continue to be negotiated under the Hungarian Presidency, include the Traineeships Directive. The Council has already agreed a general approach on the amendment of the European Works Councils Directive with trilogue negotiations expected to follow.

In the field of environment, the trialogues on the Green Claims Directive and the revision of the Waste Frame Directive are to be resumed. Discussions on New Genomic Techniques (NGT) are to be revived at expert level after no agreement could be reached under the Belgian Presidency.

Regarding the transport sector, entering into trilogue negotiations on the regulation on measuring emissions from transport services (CountEmissionsEU) and the adoption of a general approach on the proposed directive on Combined Transport has been planned. Concerning financial services, trilogue negotiations on the Retail Investment Strategy are expected to begin in autumn, while work on the digital euro and the framework for access to financial data will continue in Council.

Hungarian government representatives have promised to fulfil the role of the EU Council Presidency as “honest brokers”, in line with general practice. It remains to be seen whether this promise will be honoured.

Solidarity-based workers´ perspective
Given the difficult circumstances of the Hungarian Council Presidency, solidarity and cooperation between trade unions across national borders is all the more important. Both ÖGB and Hungarian trade unions are represented not only in the European Trade Union Confederations, but also in the newly founded Central European Trade Union Network CETUN, where they are developing common positions.

Further information
Official website of the Hungarian presidency
EU Parliament: Timeline after the election
ÖGB: “Make Europe Great Again” - Was die ungarische Ratspräsidentschaft (nicht) bringen wird (German only)
ÖGB: Central European Trade Union Network (CETUN)  (German only)