The politics of differentiated integration : what do governments want? Country report : Hungary

Abstract

This paper evaluates the salience of differentiated integration (DI) and the positions of successive Hungarian governments since the country’s EU accession. It finds that DI has a low-salience and tends to come up in relation to specific events or policy debates. DI-related discussions rarely cross the bounds of the parliamentary arena and references to DI in government programmes, prime minister speeches and European Council statements are rare. At the conceptual level, DI salience peaked in 2017, which can be attributed to the debates on the future of Europe, even though Hungary did not officially participate in this process. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has been the most important DI-related issue in the Hungarian context, linked also to broader problems of corruption and democratic backsliding in the country. In terms of DI positions, these tend to reflect a government-opposition pattern. More specifically, the opposition vocally rejects the concepts of ‘two-speed Europe,’ ‘multiple-speed Europe’ and most of all ‘two-tier Europe’ for fear that Hungary may be ‘left out’ or ‘left behind’ in Europe. On the other side, while successive Fidesz-governments have not embraced the concepts of two-speed or multiple-speed Europe per se, they have not completely rejected them either. Top government officials are particularly supportive of enhanced cooperation, which they view as a mechanism that empowers the Member States.