Sweden's and Finland's membership would make the alliance stronger, according to Fidesz MP Zsolt Németh.Continue reading
Hungary has been under international pressure for months to ratify the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO. So far, only two countries in the North Atlantic Alliance – Turkey, and Hungary – have not agreed to the accession of the Nordic countries.
Turkey made clear its objections to the two countries last year. Ankara has foreign policy and security policy reservations about the two countries and is therefore using the open opportunity of their application for NATO membership to impose conditions and try to assert its interests.
In the absence of such concrete bilateral issues with Finland and Sweden in the case of Hungary, speculation has surrounded the non-ratification for months. The Hungarian government has stressed from the outset that it supports Swedish and Finnish accession- it is simply the case that more urgent matters had to be put on the parliamentary agenda.
One such issue was the adoption of the bills needed to enable the government to meet the ever-multiplying conditions of the European Commission and to access the EU funds Hungary is entitled to.
Although parliament passed the laws at a steady pace, Brussels has made new demands; therefore, Hungary has not yet had the chance to access all the funds.
The press has reported that the delay in ratification is a means of putting pressure on Western allies. At the same time, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has repeatedly made it clear that the government is not linking NATO enlargement to other issues.
Although the government supports enlargement, Fidesz parliamentary group leader Máté Kocsis said there was no unity on ratification in the governing party’s parliamentary group, which is why a parliamentary delegation was sent to Stockholm and Helsinki to settle the dispute. He said that several MPs had complained that Hungary was being pressured by Finnish and Swedish politicians who had been berating the Hungarian government for years and demanding that Hungary should not receive the EU funds it is entitled to.
The delegation reported positive negotiations, and Kocsis later announced that the group had decided to support Finland’s membership, but that Sweden would be voted on later in parliament. Shortly before, Turkey had also announced its support for Finnish accession.
Recent criticism of Hungary suggests that in the Western alliance circle, it is taken for granted that smaller, “new” member states will give their assent without question to decisions backed by a majority. Yet Hungary has just as much right to vote along the lines of its national interest as any other EU or NATO member state. It is also far from automatic that just because Swedish and Finnish accession are treated as a “package,” Hungary should decide on both at the same time. This would mean that decision-making within the federal system would be void of reason.
Hungary has every right to carefully consider its own interests, and as Máté Kocsis said, the more pressure Hungary is under from abroad, the more it is justified to prepare these decisions carefully.
Featured photo via Facebook/Magyar Honvédség/Tischler Zoltán
