On 1 July 2024, Hungary will take over the reins of the Council of the European Union, holding the Rotating Presidency for the second time since its accession to the European Union twenty years ago, in May 2004.
To discuss the aims and priorities of the incoming Hungarian Presidency, as well as the crucial files needing attention in the EU, the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) and the HUN-REN Centre for Economics and Regional Studies – Institute of World Economics co-organised the Hungarian Pre-Presidency Conference (PPC): “Changes and Challenges in the European Union”.
The panel “TEPSA Recommendations” featured contributions from:
– Balázs Molnár, State Secretary, Responsible for the Presidency;
– Nicoletta Pirozzi, Istituto Affari Internazionali;
– Richard Youngs, Carnegie Europe;
– Moderator: Mariam Khotenashvili, TEPSA Executive Director.
This Pre-Presidency Conference was organised by the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) and the HUN-REN Centre for Economics and Regional Studies – Institute of World Economics. The event is co-funded by the European Union in the framework of the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme. The event was in cooperation with the Hungarian Economic Association, Videoton Holding, Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Grawe Insurance.
TEPSA Website: https://www.tepsa.eu/
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Editing: Hugh Evans
Music: “Alive”, Wondershare Filmora X
This video is co-funded by the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme of the European Union
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
well good afternoon everyone um I have a pleasure and honor to moderate this panel many thanks to our previous speakers um and this panel obviously is about the priorities of the Hungarian presidency and about recommendations from experts from the chsa network also on my part I would like to warmly welcome Mr balash molner state Secretary responsible for the council presidency um our panel will take place in a hybrid format um we will therefore hear professor nicoleta pzi and Professor Richard young online nikoleta is heading the EU program at the Institute afar International in Rome and Richard is a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe both are members of the TSA board and they have coordinated the TSA recommendations uh we have selected three topics for recommendations reflecting key areas of interest of the Hungarian presidency uh and these three are the role of performance-based financing in the design of the next mff the future of cohesion policy and implementation of the recently agreed act on migration and Asylum with emphasis on Partnerships with third countries in the introduction of our recommendations we reflect on the timing of the Hungarian presidency in Europe um at the time of obviously institutional reforms and a an alarming security situation in uh Europe so we make this point about the special responsibility of the presidency to facilitate uh compromise solutions that strengthen the Union uh we will hear more from nicoleta and Richard but now I’d like to give the floor to Mr state Secretary for his out line of the presidency priorities thank you it’s my pleasure to be here can you hear me all right like this better very good all right I will try not to concentrate on this in of my middle of my face so uh it is my pleasure to be here thank you very much uh for the invitation of course it is our pleasure to to to have such gatherings in in Budapest and thank you for the organizers as well and thank you for all the guests who are here and and uh you have interest in in what is happening with the presidency and and uh what actually is to be awaited from from Hungary uh we will of course try to live up to the expectations uh from the uh from the first presidency which was uh 13 and a half U years ago U we had that time of course the first presidency which is always very special and uh thereby our Belgium friends just uh finished their 13th we are only looking into the the second one but this is uh very much different from the first one if I may start with that what is different first and foremost it’s the institutional transition we already had the elections in most of the countries like here we had it on Sunday we roughly know uh the the new APS uh uh setup of course we don’t necessarily know yet the fractions but we will have answers in that regard as well and we will continue on Monday evening leaders will meet and have the first discussion on the new top jobs and this will continue with of course the new uh new president of the commission the Commissioners the new president of the European Council and of course the the new uh new uh borell so to say so we will have to have to look into into the new uh setup which results in some uh some interesting um phenomena for the Hungarian presidency mostly we will not be able to take up uh uh trialogues with the parliament most probably until mid October maybe November uh the elections were two weeks later than last time five years ago and that time we had the up and running new Commission on the 1st of December so we will see how that will end up but um logically uh 1 of December is doable um there are some pessimistic scenario that we will not have a new Commission in this year but I believe that actually 1 of December is is something which is possible on the other hand of course we we have a lot of issues on the table nevertheless not having uh trialogues for the first couple of months we just had a discussion with the council General Secretariat and we have 122 legislative files open so it’s enough on the on the table on the council side as well and of course we will try to uh move forward as much as only possible one of the requirements uh to the presidency is to be an honest broker be an honest broker means that you are representing the eu27 and you are representing the council when it comes to discussions and negotiations with the other institutions so that is something which Hungary is committed to be known as broker presidency and uh we have identified issues which uh we believe are importance are of importance to the European population and I will list these seven priority notes in a minute but I will would like to start with uh drawing up the the big picture that what is happening around Europe and what is uh very much influencing the presidency any presidency actually but as we are uh thanks to our British friends um this uh this uh presidency we will have to deal with these in the next uh six months starting in two weeks time first is of course the the war in the imminent neighborhood the B from here is 250 kilom so 250 k from here there’s a country in war so that also explains a bit our different or maybe for some uh interesting uh take on the on the war in Ukraine so neighboring country on the other hand we of course have the Middle East crisis we have the the Red Sea crisis which is partially at least related to the Middle East crisis but it it has some other uh influences as well but it certainly has Direct effects on European economy on the other hand we have all the other crisis situation and of course course we have to scale up for any given crisis situation as any presidency has to do that and of course we hope that that scale up will not be used but it does not look like that uh in during the first presidency we had to deal with the Arab Spring and the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe so we hope that we uh that we will not have uh so much and too much on the plate on the other hand of course this is certainly certainly uh times when we when we find ourselves in a lot of Crisis and and uh within that how actually the European Union stands is how actually Europe looks and how actually Europe we can uh we can see Europe’s role in the in the globalized world in the global world it’s certainly of very much interest so they we are getting to the to the seven priority nodes and we have one overarching prior priority which is indeed a very important one and which was on the agenda already starting from the Swedish presidency not that much under the Spanish and of course during the Belgian as well I have not mentioned but we are of course part of the trio with Belgium Spain um Spain Belgium Hungary and we will uh followed by uh the the next Trio uh with uh with Poland Denmark and Cyprus so we are also as a last member of this Trio a link to the next Trio as we could hear that there is a link to our polish friends as well as actually it’s exactly the same as it was in 2011 so first and foremost uh overarching priority is the global competitiv of the European Union uh April European Council Ted the next presidencies to deal with this issue but of course this was uh very much on the agenda Europe is lagging behind Global competitors when it comes to competitiveness not just on the East so not just China Japan and asan countries but also uh behind the US especially in the latest latest years and we have to do something with that uh there are reports we can rely on there is the lettera report there will be drug report published in the in the middle of uh July uh most probably and uh the task of the Hungarian presidency is to keep this question on the on the agenda and of course we would like to go forward with this uh with this question very much so what shall we do we certainly have to cut red tape we have to cut the administrative burden on smmes mostly but also on other companies we have to look into the green deal we have to reinvent a bit the the green and digital transition the digital one uh was a bit lost it was a bit maybe too green transition and uh we have to also look into into connectivity we also have to look into Energy prices energy uh connectivity as well so there are a lot of questions on the on the map we also have to look into labor market uh what can we do for skill shortages how we can actually uh uh advocate for uh for production more production uh a technology neutral uh production um and this indust policy in the European Union so these are all issues which we we have to address our aim is to have have um um some uh sort of a conclusions ready for the informal European Council which will be held on the 8th of November 2024 we will also deal with the with the defense and security questions in the European Union we don’t have to talk too much about this I believe everyone uh agrees that there is an even greater need for uh defense capabilities on the European uh scale as well irrespective of who will win the next elections in the European in the United States so this is an issue where we have to scale up production we have to scale up uh joint procurements we have to scale up uh Innovation uh as well financing is a very important question which was also raised by the letter report so financing on both investment on both uh the the capital markets but of course also whether it’s possible for for example for the EI to finance defense related expenditure on the other hand we will deal with the enlargement process uh we believe in the merit-based enlargement uh Hungary has always been we have uh we have sent ambassadors to every Western Balkans country and Georgia for decades now who help with them them who help them get closer and closer to the to the European Union on the western Balkans where we have our Focus we certainly have to have to uh mention again that this is a question of credibility for the European Union 21 years ago in Tessalon the European Union promised the European path for the Western Balkans and of course it’s not just the sole problem and the sole fault of the European Union side that they are not yet members of the European Union and not even very close but on the other hand is they certainly have to have to do their homework and they have to fulfill all the merits but on the other hand this is very important that this new wind around enlargement is somehow has at least a little little bit of a breeze on the western Balkans as well so we will we will work for that Merit based enlargement uh policies are very important and of course we will not neglect the Eastern Trio in the process either on the other hand we will uh deal with migration but as we have said onest Brook a presidency you have to concentrate on issues which unite uh the European Union not that those which divide so we have to look into the question from the angle of of of of agreement and where we have agreement is the external um dimension of the European of the migration uh situation migration management crisis this is a very important issue we have to focus on external uh Border Protection we also have to uh have to deal with third countries of uh key third countries of origin and Transit and we have to go on further with other countries agreements with other countries how we can actually work together in order to stop illegal migrations uh coming to is the European Union this is a very important issue as the external Border Protection and rather the lack of it very much jeopardizes the the shenen uh system and with that uh of course the the proper functioning of the internal Market we will also deal with the future of the cohesion policy and sorry I understand that um that you have recommendations on both the migration and the next point which is the cohesion policy so I’m happy to uh go into that in the in the next bit of the of the program uh on the future of cohesion policy we had the ninth cohesion report published which states that uh still now 25% of the European Union’s population live in in in regions which are less developed than 75% of the average of the European Union these regions happen to be in this neighborhood so there is a there’s still a very important need uh for the cohesion uh policies and the cohesion as as it is uh to to act further as a as a tool for uh for um closer and closer development levels in the European Union uh we believe that cohesion policy is indeed a very important and very successful uh tool of the European Union there are member states who are very fairly admitting that that how much they benefited U year long and decade long from uh cohesion policies much much longer than actually we have even been part of the European Union Ireland is for example one of those countries so we will certainly like to like to start with giving foot for foot for the next mff uh discussions this will be of course dealt with under the the next Trio but on the other hand we all know that the commission is already working on on the next mff proposal and we also know that this is not very favorable uh for the cohesion policies future so in that sense we we certainly would like to set the set the uh um the positive examples for how well cohesion works and if you look around in this country you can certainly see all the development which have been done since the the 2011 presidency of Hungary for example also with the partial or full use of cohesion funds we will also deal with an issue which which was not in the original Seven priorities of Hungary uh when we started to scale up and uh when started to map that what shall we deal with during the presidency it’s the it’s the agricultural sector but we if we are honest uh there had been a lot of protest lot of turmoil around Agriculture and it’s it’s not that much the surprise it’s rather the surprise that how how come actually it it took uh the sector so long to actually demonstrate loudly so we will take up this issue we are convinced that this is a strategic Independence question as well Europe should be able to provide a healthy uh food and food stuff to the to the European population this is as I have said an issue of importance an issue of strategic Independence as well but it’s also a question of livelihoods because the farmers are protesting because their livelihoods is inang there are so many regulations of course and there are all these Market uh Market questions for for them how actually they can uh they can produce with profit and proper profit their uh products and the last one again here we will not concentrate on uh on issues where we do not uh find agreement but we would like to deal with the demographic situation and demographic challenges of the European Union because we are convinced that actually there’s no m states which is not hit by the demographic crisis but here again we will not concentrate on family formation or family law not just because these fall fully in the member State competencies but also because we will not be able to find agreement there but we can speak about many things certainly about uh pension sustainability uh all the effects of the Aging Europe aging population we can speak about the sustainability uh and and possibilities of the of the elderly care of the social systems of the healthare of the labor market challenges on on reconciliation of work and family life especially for those who raise small children and we certainly can speak here again about rural neighborhoods and Rural regions which lose their young populations uh in a in a rapid manner so these are the seven issues where we would like to concentrate our uh thinking but of course there will be so many other issues which we will is which we will uh deal with um as an Hest broker as I have said we will certainly uh address the fit4 55 package and the implementation of that we will speak about the reforms uh and the future of Europe uh issues and we will uh deal with many other issues on both the foreign and the security agenda and of course every Council formation has its own priorities in the morning I have presented the health priorities uh where we certainly have for example the Pharma package a very big package very important package uh on the table but of course you have to have to uh uh signal out some uh priorities and these were the seven which we ended up uh signaling the program will be presented next week um as customary so roughly two weeks before commencement of the presidency as of course as a courtesy for the Belgian presidency this is still their time of course we are not yet uh at the at the steering wheel uh but this uh comes in a very very fast manner so again thank you very much for coming we uh we look forward to the cooperation I’m happy to see uh see all of you here and of course you I have seen the program and i’ I’m very happy that there will be discussion on the largement which is a very important uh issue for us and I’ve seen that there are some very good experts certainly from our side whom I also know personally so there will be a very exciting exciting uh discussion about for example the Western balans role it’s very important they are in the neighboring region as well for us uh so I’m I’m very uh grateful for for the good program and of course your presence I would stop here and I’m happy to ask answer questions thank you well thank you very much Mr state Secretary for this very comprehensive overview of the seven priorities I’d like to now invite niketa to present uh TSA experts recommendations to the Hungarian presidency I hope you can hear as well yes Mariam hope you can hear me I guess so okay so good afternoon it is a pleasure to join you unfortunately only online this time uh and I thank the state Secretary for giving us this comprehensive first overview of the priorities of the presidency uh so I will start by presenting briefly our recommendations uh recommendations that we develop together with Mariam kotash and richand Youngs and also some key experts I will introduce them later in the TSA network but first of all let me say that I really value this opportunity to engage in a dialogue with the Hungarian presidency and give the TSA Network the opportunity to present our uh concerns on one side and also uh priorities for the next uh presidency so uh in our recommendations we start by presenting the presidency as a challenging one uh why because hungar is undeniably one member state that has been the most openly confrontational towards many you policies positions and new cooperation proposals we acknowledge that in the early stages of the um presidency there will be relatively few legislative proposals left on the agenda and the European Council will have already adopted the Strategic agenda 2024 2029 uh political negotiations will be ongoing for the uh next uh institutions and Leadership of the European Union so in this uh political situation uh we found that the focus should be on setting the priorities for the incoming commission and also preparing the ground for a very important subject which is the next multiannual financial framework work we also uh pointed out on the external environment of course which is likely to have a heavy impact on the uh presidency itself and the politics of the European Union and here again the Divergence that we have seen between Hungary and the rest of the European Union on crucial external challenges is also one element that could hamper the creation of an harmonious consensus in the European Union we can uh mention the lorm support for Ukraine by Hungary or also the Prime Minister Victor orban’s public backing of Donald Trump the further engagement with China or Russia so all these things can um work towards fragmentation instead of creating consensus uh overall we uh found that this could indeed be a turbulent six Monon period however at the same time we also look forward to understand to what extent the European Union institution will have a moderating impact on the uh Hungarian presidency and PS also uh producing some positive value on integration Dynamics and on this we focus in particular on three aspects that Mariam already mentioned uh the first one the um performance link fund funding under the next multiannual financial framework second the redesign of the cohesion funds and then the demographic migration challenges so let me go briefly through our main key recommendations and then of course we can discuss them further in the debate so first of all on budgetary conditionality uh this part was um was written by The candal Institute in particular sashka olander and Luis van shik so we uh started by uh saying that the uh extension of budgetary conditionality is likely to be part of the next Us’s long-term budget however uh looking at the past performance of budgetary conditionality there is not enough evidence that this can for reforms model is really effective and we um pointed out to rule of law for example as one example of this um we also found that this instrument suffers from some demograph Democratic shortcomings uh linked for example to the lack of transparency and the clarity of procedures um so our uh main uh proposition for the future would be first of all to identif ify the uh European public goods that should be prioritized in this framework and also to understand what what are the necessary uh conditionalities to deliver these public goods so uh first of all start a conversation on the next multiannual financial framework based on the desirability of performance-based financing and also facilitating discussions on the geopolitical priorities that the next multiannual financial framework should deliver and how to do so and at the same time to um provide more clarity and transparency of procedures in place in applying budgetary conditionality in order to enance its Democratic aspects second topic was the future of cohesion policy uh by Yash kulit from Irmo um well on on cohesion policy we uh underline how this represents a valuable asset for the European Union uh and also a necessary policy to support the potential of regions and take advantage of opportunities for inclusive and sustainable growth in terms of our recommendations we pointed out to the need to ensure adequate Financial Resources for the cohesion policy objectives and also try to exploit fully the potential potential of cohesion policy in particular in fields such as G digital green and demographic transition challenges this should go hand inand with a simplification of cohesion policy and also uh a more efficient use of cohesion policy to support uh effect efficient integration of future member states into the into the European Union at the same time without being handful to current regions facing economic and social difficulties very briefly again on the um migration demographic uh link uh so we all know that after many failed attempts we uh finally have a new pack on migration and Asylum however we recognize that this PCT islikely to make you migration policy more Humane or more effective or to address the external dimension on migration this was the core message by the recommendations by Luigi scater from Center for European deform so we advise the next presidency to uh try to rethink the approach towards external Partners in particular Shifting the focus from uh migration control to forging genuine Partnerships what do we need what do we what do we mean by that um we recognize the union partners want uh financial assistance greater Market access to Europe economic investment Technical knowhow and so on and for its part the European Union has a range of objectives that uh uh go from a cooperation on irregular migration to securing energy supplies and so on and so forth so uh the idea is that um this should be an opportunity to create a package deal that can blend together each side’s interest and at the same time trying to make migration a phenomenon that can be manag uh and orderly to be politically accepted by European citizens uh of course I had to be very quick on the various recommendations uh but that was in a nutshell what we have included in our paper uh final consideration uh we uh really think that the uh role of the uh presidency of the rotating presiden of the Council of the European Union should be that of a honest broker it was mentioned also by the state Secretary in his speech uh in order to do that we uh think that the um Hungarian government should dramatically uh try to uh change the Diplomatic posture that has taken so far especially on the most controversial issues and if uh the uh Hungarian government manages to do so we will probably see a successful presidency and also will put the the basis for uh some incremental changes in the various policy areas that we have mentioned thank you very much oh thank you niceta for uh this main takeaways uh of the recommendations Richard if I may turn to you how do you see the role of the presidency in the postelection context I know we’re virtually out of time so I’ll be really really brief and just draw out four more overarching points from all the different policy debates that nikoleta was talking about Point number one we suggest in our publication that this will be um a preparatory presidency that many of the really important policy files are probably unlikely to make dramatic progress because of the place we are in the institutional cycle quite separate from the challenges related to the Hungarian presidency so I think a lot of the important work may be done away from the headlines the big political news stories of the next six months are likely to take place well beyond the scope of the presidency per se and so I think the the assessment of this presidency would have to be a little bit off the radar screen in terms of whether there’s methodical good quality preparation of key policy dossier that will be handed on to the next presidency for Progress once all the institutional reconfiguration has has finalized in the EU second point we argue this will be a a test for the institution of the presidency per se as nicoleta was talking about it could go either way it’s not controversial for me to note there’s been growing tensions uh from both sides and both sides on this would need to be more flexible for this presidency work from Brussels towards Hungary from Hungary towards Brussels it could be indeed that this shows the value of the presidency in obliging governments to think beyond their own rather combative national interests um but it could of course go the other way and show some of the fundamental structural flaws of the presidency per se so it’s going to be an interesting stress test for the presidency as such and I think it’ll be important for us as analysts to take stock of that at the end of the the next six months third issue democracy of course this is many people feel this a particularly important and fragile moment for European democracy of course everyone is commenting on the elections personally I feel the elections don’t represent a big syst systemic crisis for European democracy obviously there are concerns there because of the the the change in balance of power turnout was more or less the same as in 2019 disinformation wasn’t that much of a spoiler of the elections as many feared it might be so there has been some resilience but I think the point I would make is I think as a result of the elections and combination of the elections and the particular sensitivities of this presidency the eu’s ambition on Democracy related issues is like to be lower over the next six months there’s some quite significant democracy related initiatives in the pipeline at the moment I think we’re likely to see those probably atrophying a little bit over the next six months there will be more heated debate as a result of the elections over these rights-based uh issues and as we know a lot of the really significant fluidity and political change is going to be taking place at the national level over the next uh six months fourth and final reflection uh the state Secretary was saying about um geopolitical crisis the geopolitical context I think is absolutely right I think the evolution of external challenges is likely to have a more consequential impact than the this inst institutional reconfiguration within the EU not sure the EU has shown itself ready to respond in a completely United Way to many of these crisis and I suspect that tensions and stresses and divergencies are probably going to get more challenging um over the next six months I I was going to go through some of them I don’t have time to do that so I just mentioned one that strikes to me where we need much more of a kind of preemptive preparation and that’s the US elections uh we’ve all been talking about this for ages and ages and ages now we know that kind of game changing Juggernaut maybe about to hit the EU and it seems to me there’s not that much preparation of a really coherent strategy for the eventualities of the US elections um and I wonder if this presidency or the the the the fact that we may be in a little bit of a vacuum in terms of political leadership in the EU is actually going to make it harder to come up with a coherent um and proactive strategy for dealing what might be about to hit the EU after the US elections I was going to talk about more things Maran I know we we’re out of time so I just leave it there my four kind of bigger picture reflections of what this presidency might be in in more structural and conceptual terms um I haven’t okay it’s works now um would you like to respond to any of those recommendations um or should we go to the question and answers maybe just a couple of very short remarks first of all of course um an Institutional uh shift presidency is an in institutional sh shift presidency we can ask our finnished friends about that who dealt with this 5 years ago uh irrespective of that there will be a lot on the agenda uh so it will be anything but an empty presidency uh there are uh there the Strategic um agenda just been published yesterday so uh we are uh working on that uh and of course uh we will be the presidency to put that into practice or the first presidency to put that into practice but of course this is bound to to set the this is bound to set the uh the agenda of the next commission uh mostly um of course we we share I believe the the Notions around the geopolitical challenges and I believe these are the same uh we differ a bit about uh the the next mff and on the on the cohesion issue but we all know that how mff negotiations look like so mff is something where at the end of the day every leader has to go home and be be able to say that he won the entire package so uh this is very important that we strike a good balance there a cohesion policy is very important for many countries and as a presidency of course we will be dealing with representing the interest of the European Union cohesion policy is something where which which has a lot of benefits not just in the in the net uh receiver countries but also in the net contributor countries um you can look into into statements for example by previous German commissioner Ginger who said that that maybe the German fisus is a net contributor but not the German economy uh same goes for many other issue countries there on the other hand we also have to look into cohesion policies with the with the u a balance of centrally managed programs and the uptake of central managed programs by those member State who joined uh 20 or even uh 20 years ago or even even later and uh if you look at those numbers these are anything but encouraging so cohesion policy certainly has a very important development role um I would refer to uh I would uh not not comment on on uh on the opinion about what and how the Hungarian government has to do uh this is a pre-residency meeting so we are looking at the issue of as a as a presidency already uh now uh maybe just one uh very short comment on the the US elections I would just like to recall everyone that last time when Donald Trump was elected did there was an extraordinary Foreign Affairs Council C because the European Union did not like how the Americans voted so we should respect that the Americans vote for that President and then the European Union will have to work with whoever the Europe the US voted as uh President we might not want to do that mistake again be it whoever uh will been uh the election I would stop here and of course we are happy to or I’m happy to answer questions thank you well thank you maybe I will ask three very quick questions which are very uh interl and then we open the floor already to the questions from the audience um on external challenges we were very clear um what they are um the EU is experiencing a moment of vulnerability uh because obviously Russia keeps on attacking Ukraine and scaling up military production um it’s also stepping um up hybrid attacks on EU infrastructure um you mentioned Israel and Palestine Israel continues operations in Gaza uh with massive impact on civilians causing you know big anti-european backlash in Arab countries but not only in Arab countries and there is a significant question mark over the US support that you know Richard was referring to um for Europe Security in the coming years right um so I’d like to therefore ask um what key foreign policy actions should the EU take uh in your view in the coming months who will provide Europe security uh to what extent uh and it in which kind of time frame and then to follow up on your excellent point about The credibility of the EU um uh in um visavi uh enlargements um in the western balcans um yes you needs to be credible um but how about Ukraine and other Eastern partnership well former Eastern partnership countries and their credibility or enlargement credibility towards those countries thank you very very shortly uh on the defense well the European Union and European Union member states should be uh ready and capable of of uh defending themselves without uh the the cross-atlantic partner as well now with uh Sweden and and uh Finland joining the NATO uh there there are practically uh apart from some member State everyone is part of the NATO I believe it’s two member State now who is not Austria four who is the four MTA Cyprus and Ireland I need know very good so it’s still four so we are 23 indeed all right well thank you sorry for that I didn’t know austri and I didn’t know didn’t know Ireland of course um uh so irrespective uh of of who who will be the president as I have said we need to scale up defense capabilities and we these to scale up defense capabilities also because we have all these all these uh challenges around us um and of course with with cooperation with uh very high cooperation with the NATO it’s very important Sten was here yesterday by the way um on the other hand U when it comes to when it comes to um other challenges we should also not forget that who fired what uh Rockets we when we talk about the Israeli Palestine issue and what is happening still in Gaza so let’s let’s be clear there uh on the other hand uh it is very important that we look at all these all these uh all these challenges and and we we try to address that them in a unified Manner and this is what what is needed and of course we we very much hope and we’ve been hoping for a very long time that we can reach a ceasefire and peace in Ukraine you know how how terrible that war is and how many actually already died in that war and how many others will uh will keep on dying if that war rages on so uh very important for us of course from day one on not just because of the Hungarian minority being smaller and smaller day by day uh it is very important for us on the on the former Eastern partnership countries we see that there is a there is a high wind now for uh for uh EU enlargement uh we see that there are uh lots of uh uh strategic uh um strategic reforms uh implemented by by all three countries we see that they are doing very well um we see that especially in the case of mova we see that also in the case of Georgia we see that also in the case of Ukraine but uh we also see that there are uh there are still uh quite some challenges when it comes to neighborly relations and also when it comes to minority rights uh when it comes to the question of of of Ukraine which is uh a very important question question but we know that there are ongoing negotiations in Brussels now and they still during the the Belgian presidency there are some uh room of uh opportunity to move forward especially with the with the uh with the Ukraine and mdova so we will uh we will see where uh where we will uh end up in that process uh for the entirety of the of the enlargement dossier we believe that there is um there is some break of the of the enlargement fatig in Western Europe Europe but we certainly would like to see that uh that uh mirroring also in the case of the western Balkans because it’s now a very a very twos Speedy uh Speedy process uh we have to say and they they have been in the in the pipeline and in the process for very very long um as I have said 21 years ago at least so we will uh we will have to look at what what can be done in that regard as well but certainly as we are a very Fier supporter of Merit based enlargement process if there is Merit if there is uh strategic uh um um strategic um reforms uh implemented uh then certainly there is a there should be a way way forward for for uh the other three countries as well um thank you very much perhaps Richard or niceta would like to respond to that no okay should we open the qu question and comments perhaps from the audience because there is huge amount of knowledge and expertise in this room thank thank you yes uh uh yes we hear you very well ah but they don’t hear you perhaps there’s a microphone or maybe you want to come they can’t hear you other yeah thank you welome first of all for your remarks it was a it’s a pleasure for us this is toer I I’m the director of global Poli Center based in Spain but also TSA board member and it’s really is a pleasure for us to come to Hungary and and and meet you all I have two questions one is related to your comments about possible reelection of Donald Trump because this is one one point this is really making most of the member states very nervous because the he is the first American president that undermined European integration and it will really be very important that the Europeans get their act together the day after if he is elected so I’m really wondering as the holder of the the the the presidency of the council what will be the attitudes of uh of of your government and Ministry this is the first question and the second question is a as a an interest of mine what are your plans for the European political Community what are you going to do in in in your summit what will be your priorities thank you very much every good morning my shall we wait for question maybe one more question yes yep please thank you very much Mr state Secretary my question is also for you thank you for your very clear presentation of the priorities for Hungarian uh presidency my name is yapan from the Netherlands and I’m a former board member of T very happy to be back again in this uh uh meeting I would like to put you some a question about the migration issue very wisely you said you are focusing on those areas where we do agree that’s a very wise approach and you refer to the external Dimension two issues border control and also cooperation with third countries let’s say partnership and by the way I put that question also because it’s in the recommendations of TSA you were the one I think who who wrote wonderfully this recommend I have two questions for for you with regard to border control we all know it’s very defective and we know also that of course the primary responsibility is held by the member states themselves European border and ghost card the EU agency only to assist the member stat sometimes I’m wondering also in view of the experience in the Mediterranean is there a certain Merit in changing this role to provide a more primary responsibility for the European border and Coast Guard ser in the general interest of the whole European Union instead of leaving this responsibility to individual member states that’s one issue and when it comes to Partnerships with third country that sounds of course very positive very elegantly but what is the role of partnership with regard to migration for those migrants who are on the way to the European Union would in your opinion these Partnerships only serve to to stop migrants or to provide them a safe area and who in the end is the responsible Authority when it comes to examining their applications for protection these are sensitive issues but they are included in a very Global reference to Partnerships uh of the European Union and if Luigi would like to come in as well as far as I’m concerned very welcome if you want to comment on that okay he’s maybe to just add to Nica’s excellent presentation of of the recommendations I mean essentially I think what we’re doing now could be summarized very often as handing over a lot of money to countries to secure de operation which can also be very expensive I mean it can have it can be effective at a high cost sometimes also in terms of Human Rights but I just so so the idea really was is there a chance to expand the convers there to try to craft packages that are a bit broader I mean of course we know that there are issues when it comes to convincing member states to give greater Market access but we do have tools like the global gateway for example and I don’t think they’re being deployed very strategically at the moment uh we see that the global gateway uh funds a lot of projects in South America for example which isn’t necessarily one of the priority areas for migration and then I think to unlock a greater degree of cooperation we need to uh talk a bit about legal roots that is something that can contribute to making migration more accepted by European citizens and it’s also something that can contribute to securing greater cooperation when it comes to returns and that’s where the European Union has a very big problem in terms of getting cooperation on returns the returns rate is very very low and that I think contributes to the salience of migration as a problematic political issue thank you yeah thank thank you very much um on the on the reelection of trump I did not say that we will do anything in that regard I said that it’s that we have to have to scale up defense irrespective of who will be the next president of the of the United States because it’s it’s not the matter of trump or not Trump now uh for the need of of Defense capabilities enhancement it might have been a couple of years ago but it’s not now on the other hand what the European Union should do that’s what I was trying to refer to well maybe nothing maybe respect the the uh the decision of the United States and then cooperate with the with the given you uh US president uh of the US president be Trump or or not uh uh that’s uh that’s I believe what uh what would be wise on the maybe we should not start with the left foot this time as well but let’s wait for the election results first on the other hand uh on the EPC it’s a good question and I should have said it that we are planning to have an EPC uh the Brits will have an EPC as well uh on the uh 18th of uh July if I’m not mistaken but certainly July which is course it is yes it is it is there will be elections before but there is the EPC remains uh and the same it is according to greenish time it is the first half of the Year July 18th um but um that’s that gives us um um a possibility of cooperation of of of more intense cooperation with the Brits because our one EPC will be very close to that on the 7th of November the EPC gives you a very good uh look at things because it is practically apart from Russia B Russia and Kazakhstan everyone in the in Europe so it is a wider perspectrum than just the 27 so we we very much look forward to that we look at that as a as a as a soft uh strategic uh um security format uh to deal with and of course the most important there it is a relatively new format started in Prague 2022 and um we believe that this is a very uh very good way of of uh allowing also for good bilateral talks good multilateral talks and and of course set some good uh good agenda points around migration connectivity energy connectivity um um other uh issues as well we are currently working very closely with our British friends and we will see uh we will see what what we will uh how we will be able to uh to move forward with the with the questions they put high on their agenda they would also like to uh um to deal about uh discuss about migration But there again we have to be a bit careful because uh for them maybe it is other side of the channel is an easy easy solution for some of their challenges one of the well on the border control would not say that we should hand out uh border control to the frontex uh I believe that no member state would ever give up U border control uh frontex is is helping where it helps frontex is for example not not present in Hungary currently uh it used to be um on the other hand uh we have to scale up border control because we are as I have said jeopardizing the the internal market and the internal Market is indeed one of the greatest good of the European Union and if we uh we have been living behind borders for long enough to remember so we don’t want to start uh the proper uh shenen in inside shenen border controls again which actually we we enjoy most of the time of the year in many of our border uh Crossings uh so it is indeed very important on migration we have uh ourselves emphasized for very very long that we have to be able to decide outside of the European Union who at least has a chance for receiving Asylum status because we have a very big problem with with uh sending people back who are not eligible for for Asylum within the European Union we see the numbers I was not quoting them but we know that these are tragic numbers uh so in that sense uh all these extraterritoriality ideas and the new Solutions which for example now 15 member states uh advocate for these are all issues where we we certainly have to map and we have to look at these uh these as as uh possible ways out how we can actually uh Reserve uh the possibilities of those who are eligible for Asylum that we protect them as they should be protected according to uh International obligations but we how we can actually uh separate all those who are not eligible for entering the European Union because there are a large numbers among these people who are not eligible to enter the European Union um so it is in that sense a key issue to cooperate with the third countries first uh reason for cooperating uh sometimes is just the stability of these countries is also very important that when uh some of these countries of origin and and Transit are stable when there is economic uh uh stability for example when there is um good governance then certainly there is a there is less uh less uh possibilities for uh for illegal uh migration to happen on the other hand um we have seen in the turkey deal that this did did work and uh and uh a lot had been done in that regard we are now looking for the for the measures and the effectivity of the measures from the other key countries like Tunisia and Egypt and of course even further if we look at the morania um uh deal is certainly is even newer and of course we will have to uh we will have to analiz uh the effects and uh but we are con convinced that this is a question where we where we have to look for newer newer ways we have to look for options because uh because we see that that uh that when that that um that those who are not eligible will not be able to be sent back and this is this might be inhuman and this might be be uh might look uh very problematic but on the other hand we we are convinced that if we keep on sending these invitations so to say then then many will uh will go on these very dangerous Journeys especially through the Mediterranean but we could also report about many issues on our Southern border and we see see a lot of illegal activities there now there are lots of arms used lots of shootings around or boorder which did not happen a couple of years ago so this is uh instrumentalization of of migration is certainly an issue not just on the on the Polish belush border but also here in in the in the Hungarian Southern border so we have to look at these issues and we have to look at the external Dimensions to prevent the situation arising within the European Union which we can’t handle because this is this is the unfortunate unfortunate outcome of the last nearly 10 years nearly decade since 2015 that uh many uh many ways we could not deal with the with the challenge which uh which Mass migration caused within the European Union thank you very much would you like to further comment on uh the migration issue yeah of course you have to assess legible or not but who is the authority to make that assessment is it the third country involved or is it one way or the other European union or a member state of the European Union like for example has been in the bilateral agreement Italy and Albania according to standards the Albania Authority are going to assess these applications but if we referring to morania my impression is this bilateral agreement only serves to stop migration and not to deal with that in proper maning re respecting human rights and so forth I I’m anything but a great expert of the Italian Albanian dealers as as far as I know it will be it will be Italian uh Italian uh um authorities looking into into the applications and not albanians the the sole thing which will be provided is the is the territory within Albania uh on the on the other other hand uh other hand uh it is the European Union uh is is has to be within the has to be within the the decision so it is very important that the decision is made according to the international obligation by the European Union but outside the European Union well perhaps to come back to the security question that IL had and the followup to that uh you mentioned a couple of times that Europe um needs to scale up defense capacities and I think it’s very hard to argue against that my question would be um how fast can Europe do that how can we make it faster uh we hear quite a lot that um the the European Defense industry needs you know long-term contracts in order to actually scale up their production um do they have this long-term Prospect um what would be your comments on that well of course we can buy wisely um and Europe can buy wisely and European um member State can buy more from Europe but it’s it’s up to them of course there is a room for uh buying more European equipment if we look into the uh if we look into the the setup of uh of uh latest purchases by by large European armies but it’s not my uh Duty or hungary’s duty to comment on that but on the other hand we certainly have to scale up production so there there is where to buy from from whom and of course you can you can set up uh set up cooperations you can use military and civilian technique together you can use innovation for both these are issues which on the long term use or U enhance the European Union’s competitiveness so it is it is very important that whereby of course there are issues within weaponries and and within uh arment and within uh within um weapons which certainly are are uh only used within the the military industry there are many things which are used both on civilian side as well so you can actually uh scale up efforts in that that regard we are trying to uh to live up to uh to what is respected expected from us actually we do we are we are spending far more than 2% of our GDP and also within the 20% rule of new um new equipment we are ourselves also uh for for a couple of years now we are already on the on the side where where we where we um where we live up to the to the requirements everyone has to live up to the requirements I believe that practically everyone is scaling up efforts in that regard those times when Europe could neglect its own uh Safety and Security and defense has has have long gone I believe this is the reality if with within that we we can also uh we can also give some more uh possibilities for our own Industries that’s that’s a cherry on top I believe yes there is a question in the back or a remark thank you much my name is last from history from European house NGO I would like to have three short questions so number one um Hungary and the presidency will start very soon um how will Hungarian um citizens be informed about the whole presidency will you have any uh very open um attitude to General Public in Hungary and of course uh European level to inform people about very hot topics uh the second one is um Can you estimate how many presidency events will take place for example in Hungary and the third short question is uh do you have already any ready made plan to cooperate with NGO Civil Society actors here in Hungary about those topics which we know they are purely governmental business I mean the whole implementation of EU presidency but still the previous president countries have very good example to cooperate with local and Civic stakeholders thank you well the information flow will be as it usually is when it comes to presidencies we will have a presidency X or Twitter account on the maiden name we will have a web page uh we will have host broadcasts from all the ministerial meetings so this is the usual usual business of course most of the presidency events are so to say Invitation Only events like in every case uh we will have 250 uh meetings all together 16 informal councils two uh two European uh um Summits so to say one is the informal European Summit I mentioned on the 8th of November one EPC Summit and we are also planning to hold during the end of the year a summit in the western Balkans with the Western Balkans countries following our cze friends example who had that in tyana um we have a very uh very um wide ranging consultation uh together with the European commission’s uh office here in Budapest and the last meeting will be indeed tomorrow uh where we have uh where we have uh ended up putting together our recommendations for those to be invited um and uh tomorrow we will deal about we will discuss the the external um dimension of migration priority together with stakeholders from Academia from civil society and of course uh like I’m here today we we’ve have done a very very uh uh large round of consultations uh throughout uh member states economic um and uh business stakeholders Chamber of Commerce NGS so we we did a far higher uh round of consultations on the presidency priorities then that is usual we count to up to roughly 300 meetings of many kind as I have mentioned where we have speak spoken about our presidencies so practically these 250 events will take place here in in Budapest and we of course we have ,100 working groups to chair we will have uh 36 Council meetings and many many corers and other meeeting so this is something where certainly we will have a lot lot to deal with thank you great there is Paul who has a question and Eric in the back and then I would ask niceta and Richard to come in with their final comments if possible uh thank you very much state Secretary time microphone works for taking the time thank you uh my name is Paul Schmid from the Austrian Society for Europe politics um I would like to ask a particular question there are some hot uh legislative topics which are still open take for example the nature restoration law where uh the Belgian presidency might be successful but if they’re not and as you have mentioned that you will be an honest broker Will You Broker uh will you try everything possible to broker a deal on this uh nature restoration law to take one example thank you hi thank you very much my name is Eric Jones and I’m director of the Robert Schuman Center at the European University Institute um I I have a question that’s not about regulation and not about legislation but rather about own resources and borrowing we have a problem right now that high interest rate charges on the the debt being serviced for the recovery and resilience program are are eating up all the Headroom in the budget and we don’t have enough own resources to begin amortizing the debt from 2026 onward does your presidency have any plan to generate own resources to do that or to facilitate rolling over the debt by issuing new debt in its place thank you very much um I will start with the nature restoration law uh this was uh postponed uh from core yesterday I believe uh there is a slide chance that at the mvy council the belgians will have agreement on there are some member states against that regulation who form a blocking minority but of course if the should the the belgians not succeed then of course we will we will try uh try to move forward with the with the during the Hungarian presidency um that’s how you have to do that on the own resources this is a a very good uh question and first of all I would like to say that yes the rrf is eating up a lot of issues because of the skyrocketing uh Skyrocket in interest rates of of the first ever uh such instrument and despite that and I’m speaking here as Hungary and uh I’m uh please disregard that from the presidency perspective uh we are anything but happy about the RF and and especially about the the Fantastic uh um Communications from the commission how successful that is um but we see that there is uh there is thinking towards uh more and more rrf like uh like instruments uh for the next mff but of course that’s the future we bring that first example did already cause us a midterm review of the mff which the leaders agree that they will not do uh so uh this is this is quite an issue on the own resources the the own resources uh there is a very long standing discussion about own resources and we have not yet found any which would actually uh result in in actually money coming in and not just administrative burden Rising so the issue is that that uh as far as we we are concerned we have not seen any of the the proposals which would be uh any anyhow better than than gni uh but we will we will of course uh continue with uh with with looking into into the the question as far as we are concerned there is no uh no decision point during the Hungarian presidency um there is no appetite whatsoever for a further revision of the MF and it should not be because we just had that in February uh so it certainly will close further problems maybe with the with the slightly better um um interest rates it will not not be as big of a problem as it used to be before the uh before February but this is certainly an issue that if we keep on borrowing then of course there are there are other other uh threats or risks to put it mildly which which have to be factored into the evaluation this was not the case before uh the commission started to borrow money from the markets so this is an this is an issue certainly which which the next mff uh latest the next mff we have to deal with thank you and now I turn to niketa and Richard for any final comments they might have Richard is Raising hand two isses were mentioned that seem to be particularly important and underexplored to me one is the rrf it seems to me that eventually some additional sources of uh um own resources will be needed once you have those you need some kind of political accountability that begins to have implications for the for the nature of the EU POC the structure of the EU as a political system which is a major issue it seems to me that hasn’t really being debated in any depth at the moment so that’s number one and number two I think it’s Luigi’s point about the global gateway seems to me the most underexplored external issue at the moment huge amounts of money now going through the global gateway global gateway is becoming the main interface with third countries re through which third countries react with the EU at the moment it seems to me rather ad hwk and a bit scattergun in terms of where projects are going there’s not a lot of strategic rationale being spelled out um in terms of how these projects are being decided I think now as the global gateway moves into a second phase that that’s got to be dealt with because if this is to be a major strategic tool it’s got to be more made more precise and tailored to the eu’s geostrategic interests and then all all your questions on defense maram it seems to me defense and Security will continue to be a priority the hard right parties that have gained in these elections are fairly real politic and security oriented I think there the debate will be whether this incipient process of europeanization of defense will continue or whether some uh uh countries or MEPS will try and draw back the the main locus of defense policy developments to them to the National level okay maram very very briefly um just I mean um one main takea away from this uh discussion uh as we all know the European Union is forged in crisis and I think that this exceptional conjuncture that we at the moment between internal and external challenges would be particularly helpful in proving if this uh uh assumption is still true from an expert point of view also for TS I think the next few months will be particularly interesting to understand more the interplay between politics and institutions in the European Union not only because we have just had a very important vote at the European Union level that uh is um can also change in a significant way the configuration of our institutions the way they work and their priorities uh but also we have this um presidency in front of us and the secretary of state will excuse me if I name uh the Hungarian presidency among the challenges for the European Union because I think it would be particularly important to um understand the role that the rotating presidency has for the for the European Union and maybe lead us to reconsider it uh reinforce it or try to change it for the future so this is just a reflection from my side thanks Richard for joining us um thank you um Mr state Secretary for sharing your views in such an open fashion uh for all the very open discussion and as well many thanks to the authors of the TSA recommendations obviously and to the coordinators and well um please join me in apploading um this panel