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Listening Orbán's intro for the end year press conference. So this is just him talking, not replying to questions.
He opens with three points:
1. the Hungarian EU presidency is ending soon, evaluation;
2. the situation of Hungarian and EU politics after the US presidential elections;
3. decisions the Hungarian govt. took and will influence the plans for 2025.
But all before he expresses our condolences towards the families of the victims of the Magdeburg terror attack and to the German people, "we are with them". He says such events happens now on all the Christmases, as if run on by a timetable. These events only happen since Europe is hit by a migrant crisis. Some still deny it or don't see it, but that there is a connection, a causation between migration and the attacks.
1. Hungarian presidency
EU had a summit this week, where they said we have a "successful presidency" behind us. Lots of work was put into this. We already had a presidency, had to put more work now into it. Hungary is/was very isolated in this half a year. But at the end even our opponents congratulated for the work done.
1a. War
We had no room for maneuver.
In the EU there is a deep difference between opinions what should be the strategy of the EU in the Russo-Ukrainian War. One side - which has the overwhelming majority, and their will is enforced right now - says that the war is Europe's war too, as they call it "our war as well". Luckily they don't include us into the "our" - Orbán adds. They say it's a European war and we have to participate, only the way of participation is under debated - what to send, what not, when to send, how much to send. The other opinion is ours: this is not our war. This is a war of brothers between Slavic nations, and we should isolate, and not jump into it, and escalate it with out participation. This difference between opinion is in the European public thinking since the breakout of the war.
Since as president we could only express common EU opinions, our hands were tied. Despite this we could do peace mission which we separated from the presidency. I think they did not separate it.
1b. the question of Schengen Area
Schengen Area divides the EU into full and not actually full members. Bulgaria and Romania was outside of it and they could feel they weren't full members. For 10-13 years the expansion of the Schengen Area was blocked, can be known by which countries when and for what reasons, but this "blockade" was resolved with lots of negotiations. The two aforementioned countries will join now. Life becomes very different now for them, and for Hungary as well, since we are on the border of Schengen.
Now Hungary can move border guards and police away from the Romanian border.
1c. The worsening EU competitiveness
The Dragi report describes the situation quite radically. The Hungarian presidency led the creation of a document called Pact of Competitiveness, which is a plan to stop the decline, and reverse the process. Generally these types of "pacts" only touch typically leftist issues, such as social or climate problems, far from capitalism. It is really hard to create a consensus in a lefty Europe in questions of market, capital, investment, efficiency - so we are proud we managed.
1d. the outlook of the EU agriculture after 2027
Another 7 year cycle starts then. Huge funding goes into it, and negotiations and debates already started behind the scenes. Al 27 ministries of agriculture made an agreement on how the future should look like. This doesn't mean that debates end, they start now in earnest, but now everyone can see what are we debating about, and what goals we want to reach.
So as for the EU presidency, all in all it is worth to pick fights, and struggle, because results are showing.