Orbán cabinet: Hungarian EU presidency got off to a “flying start”

Political responsibility is what gives meaning to Hungarian EU presidency, as the key priorities of the bloc’s next five years can be set during this period, János Bóka, the EU affairs minister, said on Thursday.

If Hungary’s EU presidency lives up to its responsibility, it will “do a great service to the EU as a whole”, Bóka told current affairs channel M1, adding that this primarily lay in getting through the message expressed by voters in the European parliamentary elections.

“Hungary’s EU presidency acts in a politically responsible manner if it tables topics and generates debates on issues such as the bloc’s drifting towards the war in Ukraine, its economic policy undermining competitiveness and its failed migration policies, on which voters called for change,” Bóka said.

He said the EU presidency had got off to a “flying start”, as Prime Minister Viktor Orban, since taking over the rotating presidency from his Belgian counterpart on July 1, had already met the President of the European Council, held talks with Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky in Kyiv and received the Secretary-General of the Council.

Concerning the meeting between Orban and Zelensky, Bóka said the prime minister had immediately reported on the discussions to the president of the European Council and to member states’ heads of state and government. He pointed out that the task of the presidency is limited to aiding the flow of information and channelling the opinions of the parties concerned into decision-making, but the decisions themselves must be taken by the leaders. “I believe that the Hungarian prime minister has done more for peace in the past 24 hours than European leaders have during the past twelve months,” Boka said. Hungary’s EU presidency, he added, could make proposals and suggestions concerning the European stance on the war, but decisions had to be taken by the bloc’s leaders.