Hungary's controversial presidency of the Council of the European Union comes to an end

Poland gears up to take-over presidency of the European Union as controversial Hungarian term comes to an end.

Transcript

00:00The Hungarian EU presidency is over, and only later will we find out how weightless it was.

00:08According to a political analyst interviewed by Euronews, the last six months have been

00:12a success in principle, although the fact that really controversial issues have been

00:17put aside has contributed a lot to this.

00:20The presidency, launched with Make Europe Great Again, a slightly modified slogan borrowed

00:24from Donald Trump, kicked off with Viktor Orban's infamous peace mission when he visited

00:29world leaders, including the presidents of Russia and China.

00:33He earned the EU's disapproval right from the start.

00:36However, in November, all the leading politicians attended the EPC and EU summits in Budapest,

00:42and for this monumental event, the Hungarian government chose a monumental venue, a sports

00:47arena.

00:48Orban then, and also weeks later, at his international press conference at the end of the year, called

00:54to account his critics, who had often spoken about his government's isolation from Europe.

00:58I have never seen such isolation in my life as we have suffered in the past six months.

01:03This was the world's biggest diplomatic event in Hungary's history.

01:12A political analyst told Euronews that whether the presidency has been weightless or not

01:16will only become clear later, but he considers the past six months a success, saying that

01:22an EU presidency cannot be a failure.

01:25There are institutional tools available to a country that has a presidency, and it cannot

01:31really be ruined.

01:32When there is a period when the prime minister is not in Hungary, the relationship between

01:37the EU and Hungary is very turbulent.

01:39These disputes have actually been narrowed down.

01:42Hungary was the first to fill the position of prime minister in 2011, as it is now giving

01:47the position to Poland.

01:49Poland, where the prime minister's friendship with Europe is indisputable, as Donald Tusk

01:54and Orbán Viktor Elszánd, critics of the European Council, have returned to the position

01:58of Polish prime minister.

02:00According to Brussels press conferences, Warsaw and Kiev, one of its most stringent allies,

02:04is preparing to secure Russian energy imports under the Polish EU presidency.

02:08Konya Rita, Euronews, Budapest.