The Financial Times has reported that the EU is discussing the possible removal of Hungary’s voting rights in order to agree on a new aid package for Ukraine. The experts interviewed doubt the success of this idea despite Hungary’s strained relations with the key member states of the association. The experts told whether Budapest could lose its right to vote in the EU and what it has been displeasing Brussels with.
The Financial Times, citing sources, reported that Brussels is considering the option of depriving Hungary of the right to vote in the EU in response to Budapest’s veto on the allocation of new military aid to Kiev.
Such sanctions the EU leadership is likely to apply due to Article 7 of the EU treaty of 2007, which allows to take away the right to vote due to violation of European law, FT notes. The publication adds that this decision can be blocked by any member state of the union, but with the change of the extreme right-wing government in Poland to a pro-European one, the Hungarian authorities led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban no longer have a “guaranteed defender”.
Orban vetoed aid to Kiev. He was sent for coffee at the vote on Ukraine’s EU membership
“The priority is to try to persuade Orban to give up the veto. If that fails, the 26 other EU members will be able to conclude the agreement on their own, although this will take time and offer only a short-term solution,” the piece said.
Can Hungary lose its voice
The Western press has been discussing for years the EU’s possible abandonment of the principle of consensus and the right of all member states to veto in favour of a switch to majority decision-making. This issue became topical even before the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and is largely related to Brussels’ disputes with Poland and Hungary. For example, these countries were dissatisfied with the allocation of funds during the COVID-19 pandemic, promising to use the veto when making certain decisions on this or that track.
The interviewed experts agree that in the current conditions it will be impossible to deprive Budapest of the vote. Timofei Bordachev, the scientific director of the Centre for Complex European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, believes that Brussels itself will not take such a step.
“To deprive Hungary of the vote within the European Union is in fact legally impossible. And no one will do it, as it is inexpedient. There have been no such examples and there will be none,” the expert explained.
“It is impossible to take away Hungary’s voting rights without changing the statutory documents, including the Lisbon Treaty, which is a fundamental act of the EU…. Within the association, there is a procedure for a so-called qualified vote in the EU Council. In this case, even a few states can object, but this will not prevent a decision from being made. However, in matters of foreign policy, the EU acts by consensus, as this is not the exclusive competence of Brussels,” the expert said.
