Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
European capitals are drawing up ways to insulate EU decisions from Viktor Orbán’s increasing use of vetoes as Hungary takes over the bloc’s rotating presidency on July 1.
The Hungarian prime minister in recent months blocked or delayed a record number of foreign and security policy issues that require unanimity, in part as a way to force access to EU funds frozen over rule of law concerns.
In response, the outgoing Belgian presidency of the EU council, which chairs ministers’ meetings and sets their policy agenda, has floated several options to circumvent or make it harder for Budapest to exercise its veto, according to a document seen by the Financial Times.
These include EU treaty provisions that allow for some decisions to be taken by a qualified majority instead of unanimity, as well as requiring more explanations from countries when they use their veto and clarifying the circumstances under which they can block policies.
The Belgian document, due to be discussed on Tuesday by EU affairs ministers, is the latest effort to set up guardrails against Orbán’s years-long campaign to water down EU sanctions on Russia and oppose the bloc’s financial and military support for Ukraine. It comes amid calls from other capitals to adopt a tougher approach to Budapest.
The obstructionism of Hungary’s Eurosceptic premier has reached unprecedented levels in recent months, according to four senior EU diplomats. Currently, Hungary is holding up seven decisions related to Ukraine worth €6.6bn.
“It’s got to the point where nothing happens without thinking about how they could ruin it,” said a senior bloc diplomat involved in negotiations with Budapest. “We’re at a moment when it’s either give up on ambitions or think creatively to cut them out.”
Other member states have started to demand more aggressive solutions to circumvent Budapest, such as a move on Monday to use a novel legal loophole allowing the bloc to move ahead with plans to use proceeds from frozen Russian assets to assist Kyiv.
In addition to the Belgian proposals, other capitals have floated boycotting ministerial meetings that are held in Hungary, and producing confidential annexes to EU documents that outline alternative routes to reach an agreement among the bloc’s other 26 members.
Some capitals are openly discussing the nuclear option of advancing an ongoing so-called Article 7 procedure against Hungary which can culminate with the stripping of its voting rights. That decision, however, would require consensus among the 26 — with Slovakia, but potentially also others, likely to have reservations over using such a tool.
On Monday, Hungary did not object to the legal interpretation that, since it abstained from a decision on setting aside the proceeds from immobilised Russian sovereign assets to help Ukraine, it also had no say in how these profits were to be used. That legal argument was part of the bloc’s counteroffensive against Budapest, the four diplomats said.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat, told Hungary’s foreign minister that “we are going to do this without you. We have right on our side,” according to two people’s accounts of the exchange.
Hungarian officials have floated a potential deal whereby Budapest would lift its veto on €6.6bn worth of funds to reimburse capitals for weapons they sent to Ukraine. In exchange, the Hungarian government seeks full access before mid-December to €6.3bn of EU funds frozen due to rule of law and corruption concerns, according to two people briefed on the discussions. If the cash is not unfrozen by the end of the year, some €1bn would be forever lost to Hungary.
Brussels has rejected that proposal, the two people said, given the likely political backlash from the European parliament.
During an EU leaders’ summit earlier this year, the prime minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, called on Orbán to release the €6.6bn, pointing out that the Hungarian premier was not hurting Kyiv, but rather his own EU partners who were waiting to be reimbursed.
Orbán retorted that he was aware of that, according to two people briefed on the leaders’ private discussion, but said he would not budge until his €6.3bn was unblocked.
“Instead of arms shipments, we are advocating a ceasefire,” Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó said on Monday, adding that as long as Kyiv allegedly discriminated against Hungarian companies, Budapest had no intention of lifting its veto.
