04 Oct Director of CEID takes part in the conference “10th Symposium on the Czech Foreign Policy: Rethinking the Future”

On the 27th of September, Dániel Bartha, Executive Director of CEID took part in the conference “10th Symposium on the Czech Foreign Policy: Rethinking the Future”, organised by the Institute of International Relations Prague. During the panel discussions, the role of “Central Europe in shaping the future of the European Union” was on the agenda. Mr. Bartha emphasised, that Hungary was lacking strategic thinking in the field of foreign policy, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade had less and less influence in shaping the direction of it.

However, from the side of the Hungarian Prime Minister, joining the eurozone would be the most rational thing to do – Mr. Bartha declared. He added: if Hungary had been using the common currency, the Article 7 procedure would have never been launched.

Regarding the potential outcome of the EP elections, the executive director of CEID laid down, that Orbán would certainly try to interpret the vote next year as a fight between his sovereigntists, and Emmanuel Macron’s globalists forces. Mr. Bartha however reminded: according to his research about the EP election, the radical Eurosceptic parties are not growing faster than in the previous European Parliament votings. Still, the biggest losers of the elections will be the mainstream parties, such as the EPP and the S&D. But it should not be forgotten, that the biggest winner however, will not be the Eurosceptic right, but the liberal ALDE, which will become an even more important actor in the European politics: the mainstream centre-right and centre-left parties will have to convince ALDE to reach a majority.

According to the research conducted by Mr. Bartha, the Eurosceptic forces will add up to approximately one third of the European Parliament, thus, they will be capable to block several decisions. The emergence of new radical political groups is also expected, but these MEPs will more likely to be side-lined in the EP. Would they win 120-125 seats in the Parliament, mainstream political groups will certainly form a bigger coalition against the Eurosceptics – Mr. Bartha warned.