Migration and competitiveness will be on the agenda in Budapest on Thursday and Friday, November 7th and 8th, as Hungary is set to host an informal meeting of European Union leaders, as well as a wider gathering of European prime ministers and heads of state.
The two-day informal EU summit will be preceded by the European Political Community (EPC) summit, a forum for political and strategic discussions about the future of Europe, established in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Most European countries will be represented at the meeting, which will also include the United Kingdom and Turkey, as well as the Western Balkan and Caucasian states that want to join the EU.
The six-month Hungarian EU presidency has been keen to put migration at the forefront of European debate, as the continent continues to grapple with a huge influx of illegal migrants, and an increasing number of EU member states have reintroduced checks at their internal borders. Though the EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact was adopted by a majority of EU member states earlier this year, a growing number of them believe this is not enough, and want more effective action to protect the bloc’s external borders, as well as outsourcing asylum applications to non-EU countries.
Competitiveness is also a major issue: in his speech to the European Parliament in October, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán pointed out that Europe is gradually falling behind the United States and China in terms of competitiveness, and that Europe’s share of global trade is constantly decreasing, with European companies spending more on energy and less on research and development, compared to their global rivals. A declaration aimed at boosting the EU’s competitiveness is set to be adopted in Budapest.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to the White House after his election victory on Tuesday is also sure to make waves in Europe. While Hungary is hoping that Trump will bring an end to the Ukraine war by engaging in more diplomacy and halting U.S. weapons deliveries to Ukraine, Western European nations are concerned that U.S. foreign policy will be more isolationist and less sensitive to Europe’s problems. However, with his threats to leave Europe defenceless against Russia, Trump—during his previous presidency—actually spurred NATO’s European members to spend more on their own defence.
In his invitation letter to the leaders of the EPC, European Council President Charles Michel said that the war in Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle East, and instability in Africa, as well as “irregular” migration and the “fragmentation” of the global economy are all “putting peace, stability and prosperity at risk in our region”—the fifth EPC summit therefore should address these crises that “will determine our future for decades to come.”
Michel previously also said he wants the issue of the recent elections in the eastern European country of Georgia to be on the EU leaders’ agenda. Brussels criticised Georgian voters for re-electing the governing conservative Georgian Dream party, which has drawn the ire of the liberal Western elites for refusing to impose sanctions on Russia, and for adopting a law restricting LGBT activism.
In contrast to most European leaders, Viktor Orbán congratulated Georgian Dream for its victory, and said that only “when conservatives win, is democracy questioned” by the liberal elites.
