THE EU – A POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE INFLUENCE ON DEMOCRACY IN HUNGARY? - An analysis on how the EU has affected the democracy in Hungary

Abstract

Since Viktor Orbán became prime minister of Hungary in 2010 he has hollowed out the Hungarian Democracy step by step and given himself more influence. Hungary became a member of the EU in 2004, so this has been happening while being a member of the EU, so the question is – what kind of influence does the EU have over the democracy in member states? That is the research question for this thesis, and it has the aim to analyze how the European Commission, European Parliament, and The Council of the European Union have affected the development of democracy in Hungary in the years 2015 – 2021. In order to analyze this, qualitative text analysis has been used, and the material used is different documents from these three EU institutions – such as resolutions, reports from hearings that have been held with Hungary, and the Commission’s rule of law framework. The theory used to base this thesis on is from Meyerrose (2020) and her article on membership in an international institution can affect the democracy in member states and promote democratic backsliding. The results of this thesis have found that the EU has tried to influence the democracy in Hungary in a positive way and tried to protect the core value of the Union stated in the treaties and Article 2 TEU. But at times, reports claim that the EU’s attempts have been counterproductive and might have made the situation worse.