Incoming Hungarian prime minister Peter Magyar will hold informal talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Wednesday as he seeks to mend relations with the EU after the Viktor Orbán era.
Magyar is pressing the bloc to release about €18 billion that was frozen over rule-of-law concerns under Orbán. “There is no time to waste,” he said, noting his government, which takes office next month, has only until the end of August to claim roughly €10 billion in pandemic recovery funds before they expire.
To convince Brussels to unfreeze funds, Magyar has set out four priority reform areas: anti-corruption steps, including joining the European Public Prosecutor’s Office; restoring and strengthening judicial independence; reviving media and academic freedoms; and resetting Hungary’s EU relations and economic policy.
Orbán, a polarizing figure who spent 16 years in power often at odds with Brussels, used vetoes on unanimous EU decisions and blocked a €90 billion loan package for Ukraine. On April 12, Magyar’s centre-right Tisza party won a decisive victory, ending Orbán’s long hold on power. EU leaders welcomed the result; von der Leyen said on election night, “Europe’s heart is beating stronger in Hungary tonight,” and added the bloc would be “stronger, more united.”
Magyar, due to be sworn in next month, has already held two rounds of talks with senior EU officials. In Brussels he is also scheduled to meet European Council President António Costa, who said he looked forward to close cooperation.
EU capitals are particularly keen to see a shift in Budapest’s stance on Ukraine. The EU has since approved the previously stalled €90 billion loan to Kyiv and a new package of sanctions on Russia, moves that Budapest had earlier impeded. Brussels now expects Hungary to free funds earmarked to support Ukraine’s defense and to lift Orbán-era vetoes that have hindered Kyiv’s EU progress.
Magyar has said he plans to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in early June, proposing the meeting take place in Berehove in western Ukraine, a border region with a sizeable ethnic Hungarian community of about 80,000.
Edited by: Alex Berry