The EU’s Viktor Orbán problem: 9 times Hungarian leader has been a thorn in Brussels’ side

BRUSSELS — It’s time for another showdown.

European leaders are bracing for yet another confrontation with Hungary’s turbulent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán when they convene in Brussels later this week to discuss a €50 billion lifeline for Ukraine.

The critical Ukraine aid package, which is backed by every EU leader except for Orbán, is just the latest in a long list of disputes between the European Union and Hungary.

In case you couldn’t keep track, POLITICO looked back at some of the biggest issues in Budapest’s relationship with Brussels.

Putin bromance

Much of the friction between Hungary and the rest of the bloc stems from Orbán’s proximity to Vladimir Putin, which the Hungarian prime minister has made no effort to hide.

As Ukraine was stuck in a grueling counteroffensive last October, Orbán defied the EU consensus by traveling to Beijing for a meeting with the Russian president. 

EU diplomats said they tried — in vain — to stop the Hungarian leader from showing up at a Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) meeting and standing next to Putin. 

In their meeting, Orbán told Putin that “Hungary has never sought to confront Russia. Rather, the opposite is true: Hungary has always pursued the goal of building and expanding the best communication.”

The meeting ended with a handshake between Orbán and Putin in front of the cameras — a public display of friendship that sparked fury in other European capitals, as it was perceived as undermining the bloc’s unified support to Ukraine. 

Russia sanctions

Orbán’s bromance with Putin isn’t just for show: His country also has deep economic ties with Moscow, notably in the energy sector. 

It’s no wonder, then, that Hungary has been dragging its feet at every turn when negotiating the various rounds of sanctions the EU has implemented against Russia since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

If the EU’s latest sanctions package against Russia, adopted in December, does not include restrictions on nuclear power, that is mostly because of Budapest’s opposition to such a move.

Orbán has said he would veto sanctions against the Russian nuclear sector, because his country relies on atomic fuel from Russia, and is even expanding its only nuclear power plant with help from Moscow’s state-owned nuclear energy company, Rosatom.

With EU countries currently negotiating a 13^th package of sanctions, which is rumored to include sanctions on aluminum, the Hungarian authorities have once again warned that they considered the nuclear sector a red line.

“Hungary will not support such sanctions” if nuclear energy is included, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said last week.

Sweden’s NATO bid

Aside from blocking a range of EU files, Hungary is also the only member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) which has not yet approved Sweden’s bid to join the military alliance.

Orbán has officially backed Sweden’s candidacy, which needs to be validated by the Hungarian parliament.

The vote is supposed to be a formality: The ruling right-wing Fidesz party holds a comfortable majority in the Hungarian National Assembly, and Orbán has said the vote would take place “at the first possible opportunity.”

But László Kövér, the Hungarian parliament’s speaker and a close ally of Orbán, is in no rush to put the vote on the chamber’s agenda.

Last week, Kövér hinted that he would not request an extraordinary parliamentary session before parliament reconvenes for its spring session, which isn’t until February 26.

“I do not feel that there is any urgency, and I do not think that there is any exceptional situation,” Kövér told local media.

In parallel, Orbán requested a meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to “exchange views on all issues of common interest, including … our future cooperation in the field of security and defense as allies and partners.”

The two leaders could meet on the margins of this week’s European summit — but Hungary’s sluggishness to greenlight Sweden’s accession to the military bloc has already prompted criticism from other EU member countries.

Israeli settlers

Hungary is one of the EU countries holding back European sanctions against extremist Israeli settlers such as a visa ban to forbid travel to Europe, amid a surge of violence in the West Bank since the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

The idea of sanctions was initially proposed in December by the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell. 

But member countries are deeply divided on the topic. Hungary, notably, is amongst Israel’s staunchest allies within the bloc — together with Austria and the Czech Republic. 

Sanctions on the extremist settlers are not likely to see the light of day anytime soon, two EU diplomats said, even though the U.S. already announced visa bans for extremist Israeli settlers in December. “One can hardly accuse them of being anti-Israeli,” said one of the diplomats, who were granted anonymity to speak freely.

Ukraine military aid

Budapest has a “long-standing position” under which “Hungary is not delivering arms to Ukraine,” Hungary’s EU ambassador said to his colleagues during a meeting last Wednesday, according to an EU diplomat.

And for a long time, Hungary has dragged its feet over the eighth tranche of military aid to Ukraine, some €500 million for partial reimbursement of weapons provided to Kyiv through the European Peace Facility, an off-budget EU fund.

But last week, Hungary softened its line on the setting up of the Ukraine Assistance Fund (UAF) to send weapons to Ukraine, a dedicated tool under the EPF.

Hopes are that this means a new €5 billion top-up for the EPF in military aid for Ukraine can soon be agreed.

Media freedom

Hungary was among the fiercest opponents of a new EU rulebook aiming to protect media freedoms.

Hungary, where Orbán’s Fidesz party controls 80 percent of the country’s media according to Reporters Without Borders, is among the main targets of the upcoming regulation, which aims to secure media independence against political pressure.

The new rules do not include fines for countries that do not respect them. But European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová has said there could be “high penalties” for member countries that fail to abide, hinting that the EU’s executive body could take them to the Court of Justice through a so-called infringement procedure — legal proceedings that the Commission can launch against countries which do not respect EU law.

The new rules have been approved by EU institutions and will fully enter into force in 2025.

Rule of law

Orbán’s defiance against the EU isn’t limited to Ukraine — the prime minister, who has been in power since 2010, is also embroiled in a long-standing dispute with Brussels over the rule of law in Hungary.

In December 2022, the European Commission froze about €22 billion of EU cohesion funds destined for Hungary.

Of these, €10.2 billion were freed last December, when the EU’s executive assessed that Budapest had implemented some of the judicial reforms it had set as a precondition to free the cash.

But some €11.7 billion remain frozen due to Brussels’ concerns about democratic backsliding and the rule of law in the country.

This includes issues in the awarding of public contracts, restrictions on academic freedoms, a “child protection law” widely viewed as homophobic and the treatment of asylum seekers. 

The row over the so-called child protection law has turned into legal action, as 15 member countries and the European Parliament have joined a lawsuit brought by the Commission against Hungary in front of the Court of Justice of the European Union, on the grounds that the regulation is in breach of EU values.

On top of that, Hungary is waiting to access €10.4 billion in grants and cheap loans from the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund, for which it will have to implement a series of anti-corruption measures. 

Grain row

Together with Poland and Slovakia, Hungary last September rebelled against a decision from the Commission to remove restrictions on grain imports from war-ravaged Ukraine.

The three countries, which all border Ukraine, then claimed the EU’s decision threatened the livelihood of their farmers, who were faced with a sudden influx of cheaper Ukrainian products. 

“Ukrainian agricultural products destined for #Africa are flooding Central European markets,” Orbán wrote at the time on X, formerly Twitter. 

“The bureaucrats in Brussels are turning a blind eye to the problems of European farmers once again, so Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are extending the ban on [Ukrainian] imports on a national basis,” the prime minister added.

Budapest has since maintained its position, despite facing pressure from both the Commission and Ukraine — which has filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization (WTO) — to lift the ban.

Ukraine aid 

It’s the hottest sticking point in the list — and the one EU leaders hope to solve later this week.

At the last EU summit in December, Orbán vetoed a €50 billion package meant to provide Ukraine with a financial lifeline over the next four years. The package required unanimous support from EU leaders, and Orbán was the only one to oppose it.

Since then, the Hungarian strongman has engaged in a merciless tug-of-war with the rest of the bloc to extract as many concessions as possible in exchange for his support.

Hungary has offered several options, all of which would effectively give Orbán the right to block EU funding to Ukraine at a later stage — a possibility that is out of the question for other EU countries.

Ahead of the meeting of European leaders this week, several compromises are being floated. These include a proposal from the Commission to create an “emergency brake” that would permit any country opposing Ukraine funding to delay payments and push back discussions at a summit of EU leaders.

For now, it is unclear which options leaders will favor. But they could also decide to play hardball.

Another possibility that is gaining momentum among diplomats in Brussels who are fed up with Hungary is to resort to Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union, an explosive measure that would permit the suspension of Orbán’s right to vote on EU decisions.

Mathieu Pollet, Bartosz Brzeziński, Gregorio Sorgi and Alessandro Ford contributed to this report.