DW: Can the Presidency of the Council of the European Union be removed from Hungary?

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the country's next president, is angering the EU with world travel tours. But can the EU presidency be taken from Hungary?

Since taking the Presidency of the Council of the EU, on July 1, the Hungarian Prime Minister has caused anger in the EU. He first visited Russian President Vladimir Putin, then traveled to Beijing to meet with President Xi Jinping. And finally, Orban left the NATO summit in Washington early to meet with former US President Donald Trump. The EU is quick to say that Orban does not speak on behalf of the EU. Even the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, emphasized this.

Many EU governments are slowly losing patience. Orban is making himself an obedient tool of the dictator in the Kremlin, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote with unusual clarity on the short messaging platform X. The Hungarian prime minister seems to feel safe from the consequences – but he could be wrong.

The European Parliament warned against giving the presidency to Orban in a resolution more than a year ago. Hungary is unable to fulfill this task "in a credible manner", the resolution said. "This would be like making a violent student a school principal," FDP MEP Moritz Körner warned at the time. The resolution was approved with 442 votes, 144 MPs were against and 33 abstained. EU member states were asked to find an "appropriate solution" as soon as possible - but nothing happened because the resolution was not binding.

The EU has never seen a presidency like this before

Already the MEPs feel confirmed in their view. "The Presidency of the Council must be removed from Viktor Orban. In fact, he shouldn't have gotten it in the first place," said Greens MEP Daniel Freund, one of Orbán's fiercest critics. A presidency like this, the EU has not seen before, says Freund. A country that the EU has frozen a large part of its funds due to "numerous violations of the rule of law and corruption" should not speak for the entire EU and "certainly should not appear this way in Moscow and Beijing ", he emphasizes.

There would be two ways to correct this mistake: the EU could introduce criteria that a country must fulfill to take the presidency of the Council. Part of these criteria may be that a country against which fundamental value infringement proceedings are ongoing and which the EU Commission withholds funds for violations of the rule of law may not take the presidency. This is an idea circulating these days in Brussels.

Another alternative that is also heard in the parliamentary groups: to approach the start date of the next presidency. This would mean that Poland, the next successor, would take this role as early as December. "The damage that Orbán caused in the first weeks of his presidency of the Council should not continue unpunished," Freund and other MEPs demanded.

Violation of the principle of loyalty

But the essential question remains: Can Orbán be fired from his post in the EU or does the EU have other ways to show him the country? Daniel Hegedüs, an expert on Central and Eastern Europe at the Marshall Fund think tank in Berlin, believes this is possible. Orbani is obliged to act with loyalty and solidarity for the EU, but he has destroyed this principle as the head of the presidency. He also has no foreign policy powers.

Indeed, Orbán assured in a letter to EU heads of government that he was not traveling to Moscow and Beijing on behalf of the EU. But, according to Hegedüs, he is always perceived as an official representative of the EU and should have been aware of this: "Not only a withdrawal of the presidency, but also a withdrawal of the right to vote is overdue and also possible" , says the researcher.

However, many EU diplomats are skeptical and EU governments appear to be shying away from withdrawing the presidency. At their last meeting, EU ambassadors openly expressed their anger towards Orban. But a "withdrawal" of the EU presidency was not on the agenda and will not be an issue in the future", explained the Hungarian Minister for Europe, Janos Boka. However, some states have taken demonstrative measures. Lithuania announced that it will not "temporarily" send its ministers to meetings held in Hungary in the framework of the presidency, but this applies to informal meetings. Instead of ministers, high representatives will be sent. Sweden also announced that it would not send ministers to Budapest. Estonia, Latvia and other EU governments want to follow this example, but have not yet given details./ DW