BRUSSELS – Incoming Hungarian leader Peter Magyar on April 29 pays his first visit to EU chiefs in Brussels since his election win, looking to turn the page on the bad blood of nationalist Viktor Orban’s tenure.
While Mr Orban often used trips to the city to showcase his opposition to the European Union, Mr Magyar is looking to kickstart a new dawn of cooperation with Brussels that could start by unlocking billions of euros for Budapest.
Euphoric EU leaders feted conservative Mr Magyar’s crushing election victory in April, which ended Kremlin-friendly Orban’s 16 years in power.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Mr Magyar’s win made the bloc “stronger, more united”.
Since then, the two sides have not hung around as they push to move beyond blockages and bickering in the Orban era that stalled key EU initiatives, most notably on supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s 2022 invasion.
While Mr Magyar will only take office in May, his team has already held two rounds of talks with high-ranking EU officials as they look to bring black sheep Budapest back into the fold.
“We’ve never seen such a level of commitment from a government that isn’t even in office yet,” EU lawmaker Daniel Freund, a fierce Orban critic, told AFP.
“It’s practically as if Hungary is rejoining the European Union.”
April 29’s meetings with Dr von der Leyen and European Council head Antonio Costa will look to propel the work forward – as Brussels lays out the changes it expects Mr Magyar to make.
The new leader is desperate to show his promise to reset ties can bring quick benefits, and wants to convince Brussels to release around €18 billion (S$31.4 billion) in funding that was frozen over rule-of-law concerns under Mr Orban.
“We have no time to waste,” Mr Magyar posted online.
The clock is indeed ticking: the incoming government has until the end of August to start pushing through reforms to try to secure €10 billion left over from Covid recovery funds, or lose them for good.
EU officials hope Mr Magyar will be able to move fast after securing a super-majority in Parliament that will make it easier to ram through laws.
“We want to engage in a very structured, in a very focused way with the incoming Hungarian government to make sure that at the earliest stage every action that needs to be taken is taken,” said EU spokesman Olof Gill.
The quickest way for Brussels to give Mr Magyar a win could be to wave through a separate €16 billion in preferential loans for defence that were held up as the standoff with Mr Orban worsened ahead of the Hungarian polls.
While Brussels is setting out the nitty-gritty of the reforms it wants from Mr Magyar, leaders will also be pushing for a new approach on Ukraine.
Even before Mr Magyar takes power, Mr Orban’s defeat has already helped unblock some of the major points of contention.
The 27-nation bloc last week approved a mammoth loan for Ukraine and new package of sanctions on Russia that Hungary had been stalling for months.
Hungary’s EU counterparts now want to see Mr Magyar free up EU funds used to arm Ukraine that have been stalled for years, and expect him to lift Mr Orban’s veto preventing Kyiv from moving to the next step in its bid to join the bloc.
Officials insist that Ukraine deserves to move ahead in the painstaking process, although there is little appetite among major EU powers to rush Kyiv towards full membership anytime soon.
So far, officials in Brussels are hopeful that Mr Magyar – who once served under Mr Orban, before turning on his former boss – will genuinely launch a new chapter in ties.
But wary of celebrating too soon, they insist they need to see concrete moves and not just kind words.
“So far, wait and see,” one EU diplomat said, on condition of anonymity, summing up the attitude toward Mr Magyar.
“But that might change, considering all the good things he says and does.” AFP