Hungary as honest broker

The EU member often at odds with the European Union assumes the bloc’s presidency and immediately befriends Ukraine.

|
Reuters
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy shake hands before a July 2 meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine.

On July 1, Viktor Orbán went beyond being merely the president of Hungary with its nearly 10 million people. He took over the rotating presidency of the European Union with its 448 million people. A day later, his moment of greater power led him to take on greater responsibility: Mr. Orbán visited President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Ukraine.

The trip was a symbol of inclusion, dignity, and respect for Ukrainians. Again and again since the Russian invasion, Mr. Orbán has opposed EU support for the embattled country, often siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin. On July 2, one day into his six-month role as EU leader, Mr. Orbán took his first trip to Ukraine since the war started.

He promised to report to other EU leaders about his talks “so that the necessary European decisions can be taken.” For his part, Mr. Zelenskyy said the visit was “a clear indication of our common European priorities, of how important it is to bring a just peace to Ukraine.”

Mr. Orbán has defied the EU on many issues other than Ukraine, but his assent to the bloc’s presidency helped change his tune. The job requires that a country taking on the role must be an “honest broker” among the 27 member states to facilitate agreements.

The European Council’s website compares the president to “someone hosting a dinner, making sure their guests all gather in harmony – able to express differences during the meal but leaving on good terms and with a common purpose.”

For the next six months, Mr. Orbán will be setting the broad agenda for the EU – but with the need to seek consensus. His stated top priority is to increase the competitiveness of EU businesses.

The EU’s democratic procedures, based on shared principles, have a way of reducing polarization. “This is an extraordinary situation, with a war in the neighbourhood, when we have to provide stability,” János Bóka, Hungary’s European affairs minister, told reporters in June.  With his visit to Kyiv, one of Mr. Orbán’s first acts as EU president was to stabilize his country’s ties with a country on track to becoming an EU member.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Hungary as honest broker
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2024/0702/Hungary-as-honest-broker
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe