Sweden's accession to NATO not included in legislative program of Hungarian Cabinet

Deputy Prime Minister of Hungary Zsolt Shemien submitted to Parliament the government's legislative program for the spring session of 2024, which does not include the issue of ratification of the agreement on Sweden's accession to NATO, Azernews reports.

The State Assembly (unicameral parliament) Hungary will resume work in February after a break related to the celebration of Christmas and New Year.

The government's 18-point program was handed over to Parliament Speaker Laszlo Kever on January 15. Presenting these proposals, Chemien pointed out that the program does not include legislative tasks related to international treaties, the online edition of Telex reported. At the same time, it includes bills on the minimum wage in accordance with EU standards, on the recognition of foreign diplomas and certificates in Hungary, on the state budget for 2025 and several other documents.

The government submitted to Parliament a bill on ratification of the agreement on Sweden's accession to NATO in the summer of 2022, but the deputies postponed it due to unfriendly statements by Swedish politicians addressed to Hungary. The document has already been discussed in committees, but the date of voting on it in the full parliament has not yet been determined. In December, at a press conference following the results of the year, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that he did not yet see a great desire among deputies to deal with this issue.

Of all the NATO countries, the Swedish application has so far not been approved only by Hungary and Turkiye, which sought tougher measures from the kingdom against the Kurdish separatists who moved there. On March 27, 2023, the Hungarian parliament agreed to Finland's accession to NATO, but postponed consideration of the issue of Sweden. Finland and Sweden submitted their applications to the North Atlantic Alliance on May 18, 2022, indicating that they were pushed to such a step by the war in Ukraine.