Many may have thought that Hungary, which currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union until the end of the year, would lay low in August. It's vacation season and, essentially, the Brussels machinery grinds to a halt.
But then, at the end of July, Budapest announced that it would expand its "national card" immigration program to include Belarusians and Russians, as well as citizens from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, and North Macedonia. (Serbians and Ukrainians were already on the list.)
The card allows holders to work in Hungary for two years and be joined by their immediate family. It is simpler to get hold of than a regular work permit or a business visa. After three years, it can even lead to permanent residency.
The inclusion of Russians and Belarusians has irked Brussels and several member states alike, as it appears to contradict the EU policy toward the two countries. The bloc has imposed visa bans and asset freezes on well over 2,000 citizens from both countries over the ongoing war in Ukraine. It has frozen visa-facilitation agreements and made it harder to travel from Belarus and Russia to the EU's borderless Schengen zone via flight bans and limits on other modes of transport. On top of that, hundreds of Russian diplomats have been expelled from EU member states, many over accusations of espionage.
Deep Background: The main criticism of Hungary's expansion of its "national card" program is that it could lead to undermining security in the Schengen zone and increasing the possibility of Russian spying, as cardholders -- in both theory and practice -- can move freely across most of the bloc.
That critique was the gist of EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johannsson's August 1 letter to the Hungarian authorities, in which she noted that "there are increasing reports of sabotage and attacks on our critical infrastructure and other hostile acts." In the letter, seen by RFE/RL, she also said that "while the EU member states have the competence of issuing long-stay visas and residence permits, such schemes need to be carefully balanced not to put at risk the integrity of our common area without internal border controls and to duly consider potential security implications."
She also asked Budapest to get back to her on 13 questions, included in an annex to the letter, by August 19. Perhaps the hardest of those questions will concern Hungary's justification for granting "national cards" to citizens of Belarus and Russia, as well as whether or not Budapest conducted a security analysis prior to making the decision.
Johannsson also pressed Budapest on whether it will systematically carry out a search in the Schengen Information System, a database used by member countries to share security and border data, on Belarusians and Russians applying for the "national card." And, more importantly, she asked what would happen in case someone applying for the card was red-flagged in the SIS.
Other questions relate to how Hungary is ensuring that sanctioned people aren't entering Schengen, and if border checks on Russian and Belarusian travelers are more stringent when compared to other third-country nationals. In the letter, Brussels also asked the Hungarian authorities how many applicants were expected from the two countries and the status (approved, refused, or pending) of those who have already applied.
Drilling Down:
What You Need to Know: Although Hungary (and to a lesser extent Slovakia) have been a thorn in Brussels' side on a number of issues and have been frequently criticized, particularly by Ursula von der Leyen's European Commission, this hasn't stopped Budapest and Bratislava from recently asking for the EU executive's assistance in getting Russian oil flowing in larger volumes to the two landlocked Central European countries.
Both countries have since mid-July complained that the recently imposed Ukrainian sanctions on the Russian oil firm LUKoil have resulted in stopping the flow of pipeline crude sold by the Moscow company. They sent a joint letter to the commission, asking for emergency consultations with Kyiv, saying that Ukraine had breached both the spirit and the letter of the Association Agreement it had signed with the EU in 2014.
Yet, it appears that Hungary and Slovakia haven't managed to get their way. In a letter to their foreign ministers, sent by Valdis Dombrovskis, vice president of the European Commission and Brussels' trade supremo, it was noted that "the commission services have preliminary concluded that urgent consultation does not appear to be warranted as there is no current indication of an immediate risk to the security of supply."
The August 1 letter, seen by RFE/RL, also states that "according to the information at our disposal and in line with commission analysis, it appears that the sanctions imposed by Ukraine on LUKoil do not affect the ongoing oil transit operations via [the] Druzhba [pipeline from Russia to Central and Eastern Europe] carried out by trading companies as long as LUKoil is not the formal trader of the oil."
Deep Background: Some 5.5 million metric tons of oil were shipped via the Druzhba pipeline in the first half of 2024, of which half was sold by LUKoil. The remaining oil was transited by smaller Russian producers that aren't yet sanctioned by Ukraine.
It is worth pointing out that Hungary and Slovakia are still allowed to import crude oil from Russia. They, along with Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Poland, got exemptions from EU-imposed sanctions on pipelined Russian oil imports into the bloc that were agreed in 2022 and entered into force a year later.
There is a difference with Hungary and Slovakia, though. Both Bulgaria and Poland have now completely cut Russian pipeline imports, and the Czech Republic is working hard to do the same in the near future. When these exemptions were granted, there was an understanding that the member states should actively work to find alternative supplies in order to minimize dependence on Russian energy imports.
Drilling Down:
While the EU and NATO are still mostly hibernating for the holidays, Eurostat, the bloc's official statistical office, is up and running. On August 14, it will publish its estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) growth and unemployment rates across the eurozone -- the countries that have adopted the euro -- and the EU. The statistics release is expected to show that an estimated 6 percent of the bloc's workforce is unemployed and there has only been 1 percent of GDP growth.
By RFE/RL
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