From Budapest to Brussels, Newsletter

Key diary dates

• Tuesday 24 September: Opening of the UN General Assembly in New York, attended by Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, presidents of the European Commission and Council.

• Wednesday 25 September: Signing of AI Pact, with around 1,000 companies making voluntary commitments as new EU laws to regulate the tech bed in.

• Thursday 26 September: The EU Court of Justice rules on whether supermarket Aldi Süd breached consumer law when it claimed to offer discounts on common groceries.

In spotlight

Hungarian ministers could be put on the spot this week by MEPs, as they begin a round of talks to present their six-month chairmanship of the EU’s Council.

Viktor Orbán may have cancelled a likely firebrand performance in Strasbourg last week, but his lieutenants will now be attending Parliamentary Committees to say how they’ll manage the grouping of EU member states within their policy areas.

The presentations given by Council presidencies to committee MEPs are normally staid affairs, with ministers rattling off a list of laws on which talks are ongoing. The Hungarian case promises to be spicier, given current tensions on Ukraine and migration. 

MEPs, and many ministers, have boycotted many of the set-piece events taking place in Budapest to mark the semester. A presentation by Boglárka Illés, State Secretary for Bilateral Relations, to the development committee on Thursday could become charged if she strays into migration issues; environment MEPs, meeting State Secretary for Health Péter Takács on Monday, may want to hold his feet to the fire on climate change commitments. 

“I expect the presidency to close all open legislation before the end of the year, so the EU can have a fresh start into the new work programme,” Jutta Paulus (Germany/Greens) told Euronews in a statement about the Takács meeting, citing an “ambitious” agenda including EU rules on energy tax, genetically modified food, and drivers’ licences. 

The half-year allocated to Hungary, running until December, is an unusually quiet one in the EU’s calendar; the Commission that normally proposes new laws is essentially in caretaker mode until a switch of mandate due in November, and the Parliament still getting warmed up after June elections.

In reality, the Parliament hardly met at all in July or August, so over one third of the term is already over; in the health field, for example, the two main highlights — EU action on cardiovascular disease and transplants — were already touched on in two July conferences. Whether or not there are fireworks, the policy impact may be limited. 

Policy newsmakers

Contrasting prize contenders

MEPs meet this Thursday to discuss contenders for the EU’s prestigious Sakharov prize for Freedom of Thought, including some big names. This year, the far-right Patriots group have once again nominated Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and owner of social network X, for his “commitment to free speech, transparency, and fighting against censorship.” Candidates from more mainstream groups include Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and Presidential candidate Edmundo González, proposed by the centre-right European People’s Party.

Renew Europe and the Socialists and Democrats teamed up to name figureheads from Women of Peace and Women of the Sun, two pacifist groups from Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Last Thursday, MEPs voted to recognise González as the legitimate winner of disputed elections held in July, though he has had to flee the country, as left-wing incumbent Nicolás Maduro maintains his grip on power. Following scrutiny by the Parliament’s foreign affairs, human rights and development committees, the prize itself, including a €50,000 endowment, will be presented later this year. Previous winners of the award, named after a Russian nuclear physicist exiled by Soviet authorities, include Nelson Mandela and Alexei Navalny. 

Policy Poll

Data brief