Hungary and EU lock horns, this time over foreign-interference law

Just days after a major showdown between the European Union and Hungary over aid to Ukraine, the European Commission on Wednesday announced it was opening a new disciplinary procedure against the Hungarian government over recently passed legislation that focuses on interactions deemed subversive between foreigners and Hungarians.

The move comes on top of several other open disciplinary procedures against Hungary that the European Commission, the EU executive branch, has been pursuing against the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

It's likely to cause anger in Budapest, the Hungarian capital, following the EU summit last week at which Orban grudgingly agreed to release funding for Ukraine. EU leaders, in a nod to his complaints that he was being singled out by the bloc's executive branch, briefly mentioned in a statement that the commission must be proportionate and fair in its punishment of member states seen to be in breach of EU law.

Orban has said his battles with the commission pit a “woke globalist Goliath” against Hungary's “David” and has maintained that the EU is out to punish him for pursuing a Christian conservative agenda.

EU-Hungary relations, long strained, hit bottom after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago. Orban, the only ally President Vladimir Putin of Russia has in the bloc, emerged as an obstacle to Europe's united response to the war, watering down sanctions against Russia and holding up financial aid to Ukraine. Orban says his disagreements with the EU's support for Ukraine are based on principle and that he believes Russia poses no threat to European security.

Other battles between the commission and Hungary focus on a number of Orban's policies relating to the independence of the courts, corruption, and LGBTQ+ rights that the commission believe contravene EU law.

Disciplinary procedures imposed by the EU can bite.