THE EU’S DUTY TO RESPECT HUNGARIAN SOVEREIGNTY: AN ACTION PLAN

Dougan, M ORCID: 0000-0002-5835-1351 and Hillion, C (2022) THE EU’S DUTY TO RESPECT HUNGARIAN SOVEREIGNTY: AN ACTION PLAN. Common Market Law Review, 59 (Specia). pp. 181-202.

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Abstract

As Russia was invading neighbouring Ukraine, a clear majority of Hungary’s voters renewed their support to Viktor Orbán’s Government.1 United for the occasion in a coalition of six parties, the opposition failed to convince the electorate to change the political course which the country has taken since Orbán’s Fidesz party took over in 2010.2 Winning a fourth consecutive term to lead the country, the Hungarian Prime Minister was immediately congratulated by Russia’s President Putin and several other prominent representatives of Europe’s far right,3 all particularly appreciative of Viktor Orbán’s increasingly nationalistic and revanchist rhetoric,4 as much as his aggressive anti-EU politics, which he has actively propagated through captured media and widespread publicly-funded campaigns.5 The victory speech of the emboldened Hungarian leader was indeed crystal clear as to his intention to double-down on his confrontation with the European Union.6 An intention on which he has swiftly acted as the EU has been grappling with the return of war on the European continent. Departing from critical common approaches, Hungary held up the adoption of some EU sanctions on Russia,7 refused to provide (military) assistance to Ukraine or to allow the latter’s transit through Hungarian territory,8 or even to support Ukraine’s Application against Russia before the International Court of Justice, under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.9 Instead, the Hungarian Government has strengthened its links with the Kremlin,10 while providing support to Putin-friendly autocrats in south-east Europe, including by way of acquiring media outlets to relay their toxic propaganda across the volatile region.11 In sum, Hungary has thus been taking positions which are more in sync with those of powers that are unsympathetic to the European integration process,12 and ultimately contributing to the destabilization of the whole of Europe.13

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Law and Social Justice
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	15 Sep 2022 07:47
Last Modified:	04 Mar 2024 10:32
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3164678