Consultations have been held with all EU member states, EU institutions and candidate states, Bóka noted in a video posted on Facebook, adding that more than 250 discussions had taken place, “which is unprecedented in the history of [EU] presidencies”.

Hungary’s presidency wants to adopt a new European competitiveness pact to invigorate the bloc’s economic growth, boost its defence industry, and conclude partnership agreements on protecting the external borders and managing the causes of migration, he said.

Also, its aim is to advance the enlargement process when it comes to the candidate countries of the Western Balkans, he added. Further, Hungary will launch a strategic debate on the future of cohesion policy “which has proven a success for decades” in strengthening EU competitiveness and ironing out inequalities in the internal market, Bóka said.

Hungary wants a farmer-centric agricultural policy that lays the foundation for competitive agriculture while guaranteeing Europe’s food security and providing farmers with a fair living, he said. Issues related to demographic challenges will be on agenda in all council formations, Bóka, said, declaring: “Let’s make Europe great again!”

Meanwhile, Bóka underlined in an interview to public radio that boosting European competitiveness will be the main focus of Hungary’s EU presidency.

Hungary wants to institute a European competitiveness pact within the framework of the European Council during its presidency, putting the issue in the central focus of politics and highlighting areas where constructive decisions can be made, such as streamlining EU legislation, cutting red tape for European businesses and broadening the internal market. The latter may encompass services, IT and Europe’s defence industry, he added.

A proper European capital market which boosts infrastructure and energy links and establishes a European industrial policy aimed at fulfilling key European objectives, such as the green transition, is also a central objective, Bóka said.

A European security and defence policy aimed at strengthening the bloc’s peace and security and managing the migration crisis by strengthening Europe’s external borders and bolstering international partnerships will also be promoted under Hungary’s presidency, he said. “There’s a basic need … to properly handle this crisis that has persisted since 2015,” he said.

The presidency comes at a time when the European parliament and commission are in the process of being formed, he noted, adding that Hungary would strive to ensure the smooth operations of European institutions during this period while ensuring that the bloc is able to respond to world events.

The minister said Hungary plans to organise a summit of the EU and Western Balkans in addition to a Gulf cooperation forum. Fully 37 formal council meetings are expected to take place in Brussels and Luxembourg, he said.

Politically, Hungary’s presidency “will be successful if, as well as managing the institutional transition, it also shows how it is possible to deliver the change that European citizens expect, based on the outcome of the EP elections…” the minister said.

EU Presidency - Deutsch: 'Left-Wing Epp', Socialists & Liberals Have Formed 'Pro-War' Platform

The “left-wing European People’s Party”, together with the socialists and liberals, have formed a “pro-war platform”, Fidesz MEP Tamás Deutsch told public radio in an interview.

Power politics in Europe, he said, had undermined the will of European voters. Deutsch said there were 20% more “sovereigntist, right-wing and conservative” MEPs as a result of the EP election.

“It’s clear that the right-wing, sovereigntist, nationally committed and patriotic parties won the EP election,” he added.

He insisted that Europeans had not voted for a left-wing majority but a right-wing one, and they wanted sovereigntist forces rather than globalists, and they had voted for peace rather than for war.

The left-wing platform was overriding the outcome of the EP election, he said, adding that left-liberal forces had dominated the European mainstream “for decades”. He accused the liberal-left of “stealing” the vote from sovereigntist forces and handing them on to the globalist left that supported illegal migration and war. Deutsch called this “a declaration of war against the basic institutions of democracy”.

Meanwhile, he said Péter Magyar and Ferenc Gyurcsány, the leaders of the Tisza Party and the Democratic Coalition (DK), respectively, were forming tight cooperation in European politics, with Tisza representatives in the EPP and DK’s two MEPs part of the European Socialist family, both of which were in a “fraternal” relationship.

The Fidesz MEP said retaining power was paramount in European politics, “no matter how involved the re-anointed Ursula von der Leyen is in one of the gravest corruption cases in the EU’s history.”

Asked about how cooperative EU member states may be during Hungary’s EU presidency, he said that on the one hand, “we can expect loud whining … with statements defaming Hungary for political and ideological reasons” from the European Parliament, while on the other, the presidency itself had put forward a “well-prepared and high-quality” programme backed by 26 EU member states.

Not only would EU affairs be well-managed, but new initiatives would be held to solve “the crises affecting the functioning of the EU in the short term”, he said, noting a planned competitiveness pact aimed at preventing the loss of “hundreds of thousands of European jobs” while maintaining “quality of life” of Europeans.

Further, he mentioned the need to turn around Europe’s demographics and prevent solutions that would see “mostly illegal immigrants from outside the EU” taking European jobs. For this, policies aimed at stopping illegal migration such as those pursued by Hungary were also needed, he added.

Meanwhile, Hungary Issues Collector Coin Marking EU Presidency

The National Bank of Hungary (NBH) will issue a collector coin marking the start of the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union on July 1, the bank said.

The NBH will issue the coin in silver and non-ferrous metal versions with face values of 7,500 forints and 3,000 forints, respectively.

The obverse of the coin features representations of Hungary’s parliament building, the Tihany Abbey and the Millennium Monument above an abstract, dotted representation of an assembly hall.

The reverse of the coin shows the national coat of arms surrounded by a stylised network of interlocking semi-circles, emblemising diplomatic relations, and twelve stars symbolising the EU.

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