'Grootste uitdaging Hongaars voorzitterschap: consensus vormen' (en)

Interview with Eniko Gyori i, Minister of State for EU i Affairs

After Slovenia and the Czech Republic, Hungary is the third of the new member states which will hold the rotating Presidency of the EU and will thus be truly “initiated” in the EU. According to you, what could be the value added that may distinguish the Hungarian Presidency?

I think that it is a great opportunity for Central Europe that in 2011 two countries of the region may hold the rotating EU Council Presidency i successively. We cooperate closely with our Polish friends, as the approach of both the Hungarian and the Polish government is oriented at making the Presidency useful primarily from the point of view of the EU and of the development of European integration. Following the track beaten by Ljubljana and Prague, we consider building compromise and consensus our most important task, to seek and represent the common interests of all 27 member states i. Fortunately we are living a historic moment, when the main goals of the member states coincide. The Hungarian concept to make the human factor the guiding principle of the Presidency programme, to attempt to re-establish the balance between the economic and the human aspect of European integration, will obviously meet broad support.

Hungary is a member of the first Trio Presidency operating in the new institutional context which came about with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty i. How visible will the Hungarian Presidency be? Does Hungary intend to rearrange the institutional balance of power prevailing in 2010?

In the course of our Presidency, we do not intend to have neither more nor less power than what the Treaty allows. On the one hand, we have to accept that the Lisbon Treaty has somewhat restricted the scope of action of the rotating Presidency. On the other hand, the Treaty does not regulate in detail the scope of authority and the division of labour between the Council, the permanent President of the European Council i, and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy i. These complex relations are formed in many respects by life, by the evolving practice. The most important, however, is that there be close cooperation and thinking between the Council, the permanent President of the European Council, and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The Lisbon institutional framework has sufficient flexibility for the rotating Presidency to manage affairs to the satisfaction of all the member states while keeping in view the interests of the EU.

The programme of the Hungarian Presidency is very tight. What will be the most important tasks for the next semester?

We have a lot to do and the Hungarian Presidency strives to achieve the greatest progress possible in all policies, in all dossiers. This is what the European people, the member states expect from us. Owing to the economic and financial crisis, the bulk of the Presidency’s work will indeed be focused on the Economic and Financial Affairs Council. I am perhaps not exaggerating if I say that in the course of half a year we shall accomplish about two years’ work to create the legal and institutional framework of the European economic governance. It devolves on the Hungarian Presidency to accept the horizontal programmes of outstanding importance of the Europe 2020 Strategy i, related to the fields of employment and social policy. Within this, it seems especially important to address, together with the examination of the possibilities of job creation, the questions of child poverty and the social inclusion of the Roma, to mention only the most urgent issues. Europe’s competitiveness is at stake. We feel that it is more and more widely recognised in the EU that the agricultural and the cohesion policy are not for themselves, but are an important means of improving European competitiveness and, as such, they shall not be abandoned. An important purpose of the Hungarian Presidency is to have EU regulation, joint external action, and a certain extent of EU financing in some basic questions of energy policy, that is to establish a highly coordinated common policy, with competencies divided between the EU and the member states.

What goals does the Hungarian Presidency have on the field of enlargement and neighbourhood policy?

We aim to keep the enlargement process on track. We shall maintain our support for the Croatian accession talks until Croatia becomes a full-fledged member of the EU. We shall represent this in our capacity as Council Presidency. The second Eastern Partnership Summit, whose planned date is in May, falls into the period of the Hungarian Presidency. It will be the only meeting at the level of heads of state and government organised in Hungary by the Presidency; thus it will in a way be one of the highlights of our Presidency. If we look at it from the content side, we have a clear political interest in that the six affected countries converge to the values and policies of the EU, similarly to the Western Balkans, but without granting a membership perspective. The Danube Region Strategy indirectly affects the neighbourhood and enlargement policy: the Hungarian Presidency believes that the strategy catalyses not only good-neighbourly relations in the region, but also promotes the European integration of the Western Balkans. We would like to have the European Council accept the Danube Strategy in a most solemn way in June 2011, as one of the outstanding events of our Presidency. Its importance is also to be recognised concerning multiculturalism: the Danube basin has been, for centuries, the home of many peoples, nationalities, which have formed a specific Danube identity.