Hungarian Presidency of the Council of Europe – Online Book Launch

As Hungary took over the presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT) organized an online book launch to present the latest special issue of its journal to highlight the role and importance of the Council of Europe.

In his opening remarks, Secretary of State Péter Sztáray presented the priorities of the Hungarian presidency and underlined the challenge to overcome the current divisions within the Council. Hungary will focus the next semester on several pressing issues, including the protection of minority rights, the strengthening of inter-religious dialogue, addressing climate change and dealing with cyber challenges.

Ferenc Kalmár, Ministerial Commissioner for developing Hungary’s relations with its neighbors described the Council of Europe as the laboratory of democracy, an organization which works in the realm of soft law, issuing mandatory, but unenforceable decisions and recommendations. Commissioner Kalmár further underlined the rivalry between the Council of Europe and the European Union, with the Council of Europe being on the more challenging side due to its more numerous membership.

László Lovászy, who is responsible for strategic research at the Prime Minister’s Office and an author of one of the articles in the Special Issue took note of the increasing rivalry between several Council of Europe member states, which makes consensual decision making extremely complicated. Talking about the Hungarian presidency’s priorities, Dr. Lovászy stressed the relevance of cyber-related challenges, which was also acknowledged by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. This will be one of the core issues the Hungarian presidency will deal with, also in order to protect the democratic civic discourse and the freedom of speech on the Internet.

The publication can be read here!

The full recording can accessed at the link below or on our YouTube-channel!