Following the Lisbon Treaty, and the establishment of a permanent Presidency for the European Union, the role of the rotating Presidency that passes from one Member State to another every 6 months is evolving. And it is not entirely clear where it will end up during the Hungarian Presidency in the first 6 months of 2011. But among other things, the main role will continue to be to arrange EU Summits, Councils and Informal Ministerial meetings on special themes, together with expert meetings; and to shape the agendas and chair all of these. How is Hungary preparing for this daunting task? And what are the key logistical challenges?
Changing a government in the run-up to a Presidency makes things difficult enough. (But it’s just a bit easier than doing it in the middle of a Presidency.) Following the change of Hungarian government in early 2010, ex-MEP Dr Eniko Gyori was nominated Senior State Secretary for European Affairs (the UK equivalent is the Minister for Europe in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office) in the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). That makes her, under the Foreign Minister, the person effectively in charge of preparing and delivering the Hungarian Presidency. So it is now clear that the centre of this work is now therefore the MFA – and not the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) as was previously expected.
As we understand it, the MFA began recruitment of some 800 state officials working purely on Presidency matters back in 2008 (though the process was only finalised after the general elections. Training has since been underway, not least in French. The MFA has since than been dramatically restructured – this was true in all Hungarian Ministries, but the MFA completed the process first. The other members of the so-called Trio (three successive Presidencies) collaborating with Hungary are Spain and Belgium and they have been helping with masses of practical advice as well as joint discussions on policy. Hungary will inherit the official Presidency website from the Belgians – we are looking at how we can assist with the English-language content.
The very effective ex-Chief of Protocol Mr Ferenc Robak (with whom we worked closely on HRH the Prince of Wales’ visit to Hungary in April) is now Government Commissioner for the EU Presidency and is leading on logistical issues. He oversees three departments – for EU Presidency Communications, EU Presidency Event Organisation & Protocol and EU Presidency Financing. Ministerial Commissioner Mr Gabor Baranyai is leading on Coreper I Affairs and oversees two departments: EU Sectoral Policies and EU Internal Market/Legal Affairs. Deputy State Secretary and Europe Director Mr Balint Odor is responsible for policy matters and priorities and oversees departments of EU Presidency & Coordination, EU Economic & Financial Affairs and EU JHA & Enlargement. There are many expert officers working in these teams. We look forward to hearing in detail about the final priorities for the Hungarian Presidency shortly, around mid-November.
EU Ambassadors were recently invited to an MFA briefing to be informed about preparations and to be reassured that Hungary is heading in the right direction to deliver a decent, first-time ever, professional and successful Presidency starting in two months’ time. The Presidency will be Brussels-based. Gaps in the Presidency budget have now been plugged and the necessary funds allocated, subject to the Prime Minister’s approval. The main venues for Presidency meetings will be the Palace of Gödöllő for most Ministerials – except for Agriculture (Debrecen) and Transport (Balatonfüred) – and the capital; summits, most expert meetings and most cultural events and gala dinners will be held in Budapest.
When the meetings in Hungary start to happen, the MFA will nominate two permanent liaison officers to each Member States’ delegation. These will be our first point of contact with the Presidency. Our Ministers and officials will arrive and depart in most cases from Ferihegy International Airport’s newly-built VIP facilities. Transporting and accommodating the delegations – without bringing Budapest to a halt – will be a formidable challenge in itself: there are currently many road closures and construction works, partly due to a new Metro project, and one main bridge over the Danube is currently being renovated. And another key challenge will be chairing meetings with a government in which there are only 8 ministers. A lot of the burden will therefore fall on the 45 State Secretaries (who in UK terms would be known as Junior Ministers).
As Alexander the Great put it: “My logisticians are a humourless lot … they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay.” We wish Hungary’s logisticians the very best of luck!