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Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has said the European Union is facing a leadership crisis and needs to make crucial decisions about its future not only to survive, but to win.
Magyar made the remarks at the Bled Strategic Forum, where he spoke alongside Slovenia’s Janez Janša, Croatia’s Andrej Plenković and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš about regional cooperation and competitiveness.
“There is a lack of political leadership, to be honest, in the European Union,” Magyar said, pointing to the EU’s bureaucracy, which he said stifled action.
“I was told by a member of the European Council not to deal at all with the bureaucracy, not to reply to them, because they will kill initiatives. They will eat them. And it’s not a good sign. I think we should concentrate again on the reality.”
Magyar said that while the EU was focused on institutional questions, China is preparing to fund nuclear plants and car factories in Europe.
“There is a feeling already in Brussels as well that we should change, and in my view we should decide whether the European Union would only like to survive or to win,” Magyar said.
The prime minister, who belongs to the same centre-right European People’s Party as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, also criticised the EU’s daily migration fine against Hungary.
Brussels fined Hungary a lump sum of €200 million, plus a daily penalty, in 2024, after Viktor Orbán’s government failed to implement a 2020 European Court of Justice ruling on migration. The court had found that Hungary breached EU law by failing to guarantee asylum seekers the right to fair treatment.
“It’s quite difficult to explain to Hungarians why Hungary is treated so unfairly in Brussels on these issues,” Magyar said. “We have a court ruling; we have to pay €1 million a day just for defending the common European borders. It’s not fair, and nobody is ready to resolve this issue.”
Under Orbán’s government, Hungary built a border fence with Serbia to prevent migrants from entering the country. Asylum applications were required to be lodged at Hungary’s consulate in Belgrade, and the vast majority were rejected. Hungary has been hit with almost €1 billion in EU fines as a result.
During the election campaign, Magyar promised a complete reset in relations between Budapest and its Western allies in the EU and NATO.
After forming a government, he struck a deal with the European Commission to release €16.4 billion in previously frozen funds for Hungary. His government announced on Monday that it had delivered on all the milestones related to the €10 billion Recovery Fund by amending anti-corruption and justice laws.