How to stop Orban from running the Council? Scrap the rotating presidency 

The best way to prevent Eurosceptic governments from damaging EU interests is to scrap the rotating presidency of the EU Council. It would also be an important step in the necessary reform of the EU, writes Alin Mituta.

Alin Mituța is a Renew Europe MEP and co-rapporteur on ‘Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy’.

Viktor Orban is set to lead the European Union, from the position of de facto president of the Council, 13 months from now.

He is the leader of a government that is subject to the Article 7 procedure and has become more of an arch blocker in the decision-making process of the Council rather than the honest broker that a government holding the presidency has to be.

It’s evident that action is necessary. The European Parliament has officially requested EU leaders to prevent Hungary from assuming the Council Presidency.

Moreover, we have to seriously ask ourselves – should we continue with the rotating Presidency of the Council, a legacy from the past, or reform and set a stable president of the Council, much like the other EU institutions work? 

Before going into detail, we should be clear on the meaning and importance of the presidency of the Council.

Although the rotating presidency has lost some of its political influence in shaping debates due to the establishment of a permanent European Council president through the Lisbon Treaty, it still holds the responsibility of setting the legislative agenda and negotiating EU laws.

The presidency of the Council, provided that it acts as an honest broker, can actually grease the wheels of the EU decision-making process. At the very least, the presidency is an agenda setter and its priorities can set the tone of EU debates. 

However, some of the issues that a potential Hungarian presidency will have to address have to do with breaches of EU law and fundamental EU values.

Then, how could a member which has proved countless times that it is capable of breaching EU values and the rule of law and thus faces Article 7 proceedings, credibly commit to tackling these issues?

Hungary’s minister of justice, who would be in charge of making sure that things run smoothly in the Justice and Home Affairs Council, has already taken a conflictual stance, hinting that her priority will be to make sure the European Parliament abides by the rule of law, while at the same time accusing the Parliament that it exerts pressure on the Hungarian government.

The Hungarian (as well as the Polish) government has a record of being the very opposite of facilitators and brokers. Hungary has proved that it cannot put common EU interests on the same level, let alone ahead of national interest.

From threatening to block the EU budget to actually stopping EU aid to Ukraine, the Orban government has worked against EU interests and is now on the verge of obtaining more influence over the EU agenda. Knowing this, what can we, EU policymakers, do?

In the short term, there are some tools at the disposal of the EU institutions to guard the good workings of the European Union against actors who have done nothing else than undermine it lately.

EU leaders can vote with a qualified majority to rearrange the Council presidencies, delaying Hungary’s presidency as a warning to Orban and his way of doing things.

A more severe action would be to scrap the Hungarian presidency altogether and divide it among Spain and Belgium. And there is a precedent, namely the time when the UK, on its way out after Brexit, was bypassed from holding the Council Presidency in 2017. 

However, in the long term, skipping problematic presidencies is not really a solution.

Thus, the EU institutional architecture would need to undergo a serious reshuffle in order to adapt to the new challenges and reflect the democratic principles we all boast about.

This entails, for example, transforming the Council into an authentic legislative chamber through a European Council decision that would reduce the 10 Council configurations to a single entity, presided by the president of the European Council.

The General Affairs Council, in particular, would function as the legislative Council meeting in public, similar to the plenary sessions of the European Parliament.

The remaining Council configurations would operate as transparent preparatory structures, holding regular public meetings similar to the functioning of committees in the Parliament. 

This option has several advantages. First, it would establish a true bicameral legislative system involving both the Council and Parliament, with the Commission serving as the executive.

Second, it would get rid of the old presidency system which allowed member states (even Europhobic ones) to influence the legislative agenda.

Third, it simplifies the functioning as well as the public understanding of a key EU institution, enhancing its democratic credentials.

Fourth, it makes decision-making more efficient.

The six-month rotating presidency is anything but, especially when less prepared or Europhobic countries take the wheel. Even with more experienced members, the continuous change and preparations take a lot of time and effort which could be spared if the system is reformed.

This particular solution is already part of a broader report set to be debated in the European Parliament, “Parlamentarism, European citizenship and democracy”, which, if implemented, would lead to refreshed and authentic EU democracy.

Europe needs to reform. The problems are mounting every day, be they external or internal, and we can not go on with an institutional setting that was created as a half measure in the past century, when maybe it made sense for a configuration of six member states, but is now letting us down in the face of the huge challenges of the 21st century. 

Citizens have asked for reform in the Conference on the Future of Europe. We need to act on their requests to make the European Institutions simpler and more effective.

Changing how the Council works should be an important step in this direction, and the perspective of having Viktor Orban at the helm of our Union should make this imperative stronger than ever.