2024 Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union

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Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union
Council of the EU and European Council.svg
Council of the European Union
Term length 1 July 31 December 2024
Website hungary24.eu
Presidency trio

  Belgium
Poland  

The 2024 Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union is the third in a trio of rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union positions currently held by Hungary. Hungary's Presidency of the Council in 2024 is the final nation in the twelfth trio of Council Presidencies together with Spain and Belgium, which began on 1 July 2023 and will last until the end of 2024. It is Hungary's second Presidency of the council, after its first in 2011.

Contents

Hungary succeeded Belgium as president on 1 July 2024. The next presidency will be held by Poland starting on 1 January 2025. [1]

Objectives

The Hungarian Presidency stated on its presidency website that it will focus on the following priorities: [2]

Visual identity

The Rubik's Cube, a famous Hungarian invention, is used in the presidency's logo as a symbol of ingenuity, creativity and strategic thinking. [3]

Motto

The presidency used the motto "Make Europe Great Again", which has been criticised for its resemblance to the upcoming U.S. president Donald Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again". [4]

Events

Unannounced "peace missions" to Kyiv, Moscow, and Beijing

On July 2, Viktor Orbán visited Kyiv and asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to consider a ceasefire for the Russo-Ukrainian War, encouraging setting a deadline prior to the next Kyiv peace summit in order to accelerate peace talks. [5]

On July 5, Viktor Orbán made an unannounced visit to Russia and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to discuss possible ceasefire proposals prior to creating peace terms. [6] The meeting was strongly condemned by several European politicians, especially due to Putin referring to Orbán as "a representative of the European Council" rather than just as a representative to Hungary. Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell responded by saying that Viktor Orbán "does not represent the EU in any way". President of the European Council Charles Michel said that "Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is the victim, the rotating EU presidency has no mandate to engage in dialogue with Russia on behalf of the EU". NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that "Viktor Orbán does not represent NATO at these meetings, he represents his own country". [7] The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned Orbán's visit to Moscow for not coordinating or seeking permission for the visit with Ukraine beforehand. [8]

Following his meeting with Putin, Orbán flew to Beijing on 8 July to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, describing the trip as "Peace Mission 3.0" in a statement on Twitter. [9]

Following the meetings, Germany, Poland, the Baltic states and other member states threatened to boycott EU meetings chaired by Hungary. The European Parliament delayed Orbán's speech to open the Hungarian presidency to as late as September, which parliament officials claimed was to "focus on nominees for the European Commission". [10]

On 15 July 2024, the European Commission announced that several top European Union officials, including European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, would boycott informal meetings held by Hungary as a result of the visits at the "start of the Hungarian (EU) presidency". [11]

Culture

Klovićevi dvori Gallery in Zagreb and Hungarian National Museum in Budapest organised joint exhibition "Ideal and reality: first golden age of Hungarian painting and commencements of the Croatian Modern art" with exhibits of 19-century Croatian and Hungarian paintings. [12]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viktor Orbán</span> Prime Minister of Hungary (1998–2002; 2010–present)

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Events from 2021 in the European Union.

There have been several rounds of peace talks to halt the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022–present) and end the Russo-Ukrainian War (2014–present). The first meeting was held four days after the start of the invasion, on 28 February 2022, in Belarus. It concluded without result. A second and third round of talks took place on 3 and 7 March 2022 on the Belarus–Ukraine border. A fourth and fifth round of talks were held on 10 and 14 March in Antalya, Turkey.

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This is a list of events that have taken or will take place in Europe in 2024.

Events in the year 2024 in Hungary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2024 Washington summit</span> NATO diplomatic conference in Washington, DC

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">5th European Political Community Summit</span> European Political Community Summit

The Fifth European Political Community Summit was a meeting of the European Political Community held on 7 November 2024 in Hungary.

In July 2024, Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán announced undergoing several uncoordinated meetings that he referred to as "peace missions", visiting President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv before traveling to Moscow to meet with President of Russia Vladimir Putin, followed with him visiting Beijing to meet with Xi Jinping, then traveling to the United States to attend the 2024 Washington summit and to meet Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. The meetings notably took place amidst heightened tensions and ongoing conflict in Ukraine following Russia's invasion in 2022, with China increasing diplomatic ties to Russia in the midst of economic sanctions by the European Union and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lukoil oil transit dispute</span> Slovak-Hungarian diplomatic dispute against Ukraine oil sanctions

The Lukoil oil transit dispute is an ongoing international relations dispute between Ukraine and the European Union at odds with Hungary and Slovakia regarding the allowance of the pipeline transfer of Russian oil through Ukrainian territory. The diplomatic standoff arose when Ukraine imposed sanctions on Lukoil — Russia's largest private oil firm — effectively halting oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline, which the latter two nations stated would lead to an energy crisis and economic collapse. In response, Hungary and Slovakia complained to the European Commission while threatening to halt military aid shipments, energy, and diesel supplies to Ukraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hungary and the Russian invasion of Ukraine</span> Response of Hungary to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

Hungary's reactions to the Russian invasion of Ukraine have been incongruous with the attitudes of NATO and European Union member states since the beginning of the war. Hungary, a member of the European Union and NATO, was one of the few European states that did not provide military aid and completely excluded aid sent by other countries. The Hungarian government received widespread criticism for its attitude to the war, both at home and abroad: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán condemned the war, but in many of his statements he tried to blame the target of the invasion Ukraine, the Western countries and their organizations, and his political opposition instead of Russia for the prolongation of the war and its economic consequences.

References

  1. "Council Decision (EU) 2016/1316 of 26 July 2016" (PDF). Official Journal of the European Union. 26 July 2016. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  2. "Priorities of the Hungarian presidency". Hungarian Presidency. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  3. "La Hongrie se prépare à prendre la présidence tournante de l'UE". Euronews (in French). 1 July 2024. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
  4. Tichelli, Léo (19 June 2024). ""Make Europe Great Again": pour la Hongrie, le début d'une présidence de l'UE à la sauce Trump?". Le Temps (in French). ISSN   1423-3967 . Retrieved 10 July 2024.
  5. Malenko, Anastasiia; Komuves, Anita (2 July 2024). "Hungary's Orban, in Kyiv, proposes ceasefire to speed up peace talks". Reuters. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  6. "Orban says Putin has low expectations for ceasefire before serious peace talks". The Kyiv Independent. 7 July 2024. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  7. "'Peace mission': Hungary's Orban meets Putin in Russia, defying EU leaders". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  8. Spike, Justin; Vladimir, Isachenkov (5 July 2024). "Hungary's Orbán meets Putin for talks in Moscow in a rare visit by a European leader". AP News. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  9. Fornusek, Martin (8 July 2024). "Orban arrives in China to discuss Ukraine-Russia war". The Kyiv Independent. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  10. Burleigh, Marc; Akkoc, Raziye (9 July 2024). "Fuming EU Partners To Show Hungary PM 'Yellow Card'". Barron's. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
  11. Spike, Justin (15 July 2024). "Top EU leaders will boycott meetings hosted by Hungary's Orbán after his outreach to Russia, China". AP News. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
  12. Krasznai, Réke; Vugrinec, Petra (October 2024). "Ideal i stvarnost: prvo zlatno razdoblje mađarskog slikarstva i začetci hrvatske moderne umjetnosti" [Ideal and reality: first golden age of Hungarian painting and commencements of the Croatian Modern art]. gkd.hr (in Croatian). Klovićevi Dvori Gallery.