Uploading as political strategy: the European Parliament and the Hungarian media law debate

Abstract

Using the 2010 Hungarian media law as a case study, this article traces the process in which an issue in the domestic politics of a (“new”) EU member state is transformed into a transnational political conflict. How and why do political actors “upload” issues from the domestic to the EU level, specifically into the European parliamentary arena? How do others with conflicting interests resist such a change? The analytical framework is based on venue shopping, a concept hitherto mainly utilised in the context of interest group behaviour. Contestation around the Hungarian media law illustrates that a number of conditions related to the existing links of the uploading political actor with the new venue and the nature of the issue itself are necessary to make uploading a viable strategy.

Keywords:

• European Union
• Europeanisation
• Hungary
• political parties

Notes on contributor

Agnes Batory is Professor of Public Policy at the Department of Public Policy and research fellow at the Center for Policy Studies, Central European University, Budapest. She holds a PhD from Cambridge University. Her research interests include European public policy, the politics of European integration, regulation and corruption control. Her recent articles have appeared, among others, in Governance, the Journal of Common Market Studies, the Journal of European Public Policy, and Public Administration.

Notes

1. ‘EU to take Legal Action against Hungary’, Financial Times, 17 January 2012.

2. Statement by the Fidesz delegation in the EPP, 10 January 2011, accessed online at http://fidesz-eu.hu/hu/cikk/1068/.

3. The National Assembly's website at http://www.mkogy.hu/internet/plsql/ogy_irom.irom_adat?p_ckl=39&p_izon=1747.

4. Statement by President Barroso, Budapest, 7 January 2011; accessed online at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/11/4&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en; emphasis added.

5. Neelie Kroes's letter to Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics, 23 December 2010; http://www.kormany.hu./download/8/01/10000/kroes.pdf.

6. In the following, EP plenary debates are identified only by date. The verbatim records are available at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/activities/plenary/cre/calendar.do?language=EN&LEG_ID=7&YEAR=2011&MONTH=10#.

7. The Hungarian government agreed to amend the law with respect to four specific issues which the Commission had identified as not compatible with the directive (thereby removing the direct “threat” of infringement procedures the Commission could have launched). See “Media: Commission Vice-President Kroes Welcomes Amendments to Hungarian Media Law”, European Commission press-release, 16 February 2011, available at http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-11-89_en.htm. A year later, with Hungary no longer holding the Presidency, Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes went much further; see “Kroes Threatens Nuclear Option against Hungary,” EU Observer, 9 February 2012, http://euobserver.com/justice/115209.

8. Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the EP, “Progressive Euro MPs Raise Threat of Sanctions against Hungary”; press release 6 January 2010; http://www.socialistsanddemocrats.eu/newsroom/progressive-euro-mps-raise-threat-sanctions-against-hungary.

9. Voting records from the EP's website, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+PV+20110310+RES-VOT+DOC+WORD+V0//EN&language=EN.

10. Kinga Göncz MEP quoted in 168 Óra, 11 January 2011; accessed online at http://www.168ora.hu/globusz/a-tet-a-magyar-eu-elnokseg-hitelessege-68076.html.

11. Inteview with Fidesz MEP Tamás Deutsch, Magyar Nemzet, 9 March 2011.

12. See, e.g. “Smear Campaign with MSZP [Socialist] Munitions” [in Hungarian], Magyar Nemzet Online, 26 January 2011.

13. “Double Standards from the Socialists” [in Hungarian]; Magyar Nemzet Online, 16 February 2011.

14. Fidesz EP delegation press release, available at http://fidesz-eu.hu/hu/cikk/1105/.

15. “Orbán's Plan to Re-revolutionise Hungary”, 15 March 2011; accessed online at http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/580541-orban-s-plan-re-revolutionise-hungary.

16. See Viktor Orbán's profile at the EPP website, accessed online at http://www.epp.eu/party-leader-viktor-orban.

17. Ľuba Lesná, “Euro-socialists Back Press Code,” Slovak Spectator, 28 April 2008; accessed online at http://spectator.sme.sk/articles/view/31548/2/euro_socialists_back_press_code.html.

18. Ľuba Lesná, “Euro-socialists Back Press Code”.

19. “Media Groups Face Tighter EU Rules,” Financial Times, 28 January 2013.

20. “EU Credibility Depends on Standing Up for Press Freedom”; MTI/Hungarian Socialist Party; 18 March 2011; accessed online at http://www.mszp.hu/hirek/a_sajtoszabadsag_melletti_kiallason_mulhat_az_eu_hitelessege.