New Hungarian Ambassador: Running the Presidency with the speed of the EU agenda

Created on 2014-11-14

New Ambassador of Hungary to Latvia Adrien Müller is the one who has been closely together with her country from the very beginning of the EU membership application till the first Hungarian EU Council Presidency. She has worked with the implementation of the Association Agreement between the EU and Hungary, accession negotiations with the EU and has prepared the first Hungarian Presidency.

Short bio:

Ambassador of Hungary to Latvia Adrien Müller. Photo: Andrejs Jaudzems

• Ambassador of Hungary to Latvia from October 7, 2014
• Antici at the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU (2012 – 2014)
• Prepared Hungarian Presidency in 2011 (EU Legal and Coordination Department)
• Director General for EU Coordination, Legal Affairs and EU Presidency
• Has been working for the MFA of Hungary since 1998 and has been doing European Affairs during her professional career (EU legal expert, accession negotiations, EU coordination related issues)
• Studied law in Hungary and Finland, and economics in Hungary
• Speaks Hungarian, English, French and Finnish

Seventeen years ago Adrien Müller began her career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary. At that time, Hungary had just applied for membership of the EU. Now this country is a vital part of the European Union and has already held its first EU Council Presidency in 2011.
Although two months before Hungarian Presidency Adrien Müller left for a maternity leave, she followed the Presidency’s events from outside the playground still with great interest. She proudly admits that she believes in the European Union.

- Is the presidency always a story with a happy ending?
- Yes, sure! There are more difficult presidencies, and there are a bit easier ones. But all presidencies are successful because you do the job, you proceed and finally arrive to your goals. It is also important to mention that not only the achievements of the „big and visible” political questions are important, but also the precise daily work of all participants of the presidency. Their contribution plays essential part in the happy ending.

- Do you think presidency is more like a sprint or a marathon?
- I think the best is to run with the speed of the EU agenda. If you run too fast or too slow, you cannot succeed. But if you go with the speed and the rhythm of the EU, there is no doubt you will succeed.

- On January 2015 Latvia will start its first Presidency. What do you think will be the biggest challenges for us?
- For every Member State the biggest challenge is to simply run the presidency, to lead the EU28 during these six months. There are timely and important matters on the agenda of the Latvian Presidency. Speaking of your challenges, it is a midterm review of the EU 2020 strategy. You will have to deal with growth and jobs, you will also have education, poverty, youth unemployment, so many topics!

Besides that, economic related questions are also heavy weighters. The investment package to be presented by the Juncker’s Commission will also lie on the agenda of the Latvian Presidency, even if this has not been mentioned so far in the list of your priorities.

- What about external factors?
- It is not an easy job to predict the external circumstances. But if we focus on geopolitical questions – it is the situation in Ukraine, relations with Russia and developments in other Eastern Partnership countries. You have the Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga next year and I believe that Latvia’s approach is very good and valuable. We have to be realistic about the geopolitical situation right now.
Speaking of Eastern Partnership, you might want to focus on the sectorial cooperation with these countries – real achievements, very concrete sector-related priorities are very important and that is how you can really strengthen relations between the EU and the Eastern Partnership countries.

And besides all I mentioned, of course, you get a new institutional set up – new European Commission, the European Parliament, the President of the EU Council, the High Representative. But the good thing is that you have the potential and opportunity to do something.

- Tell me about your Presidency. How did Hungarian people perceive it? Did your country come across some dissatisfaction or skeptical moods?
- Whether the presidency is for Brussels or for the country, whether it costs too much or not – I think these kind of questions are evergreen in each and every country. It is obvious that everybody would like to have a cost effective presidency but still it costs something. And I think it is a very, very important investment for the country. All investment costs something.

 

Presidency of the Council of the EU gives a country such an external visibility, in-sight to EU matters and also maturity. It really is an asset which could be easily used afterwards. People will remember you, because each presidency leaves its footprints and Latvia will also do so.

- Which were the main issues or achievements of your Presidency?
We started our Presidency in 2011 when the Lisbon Treaty was already in effect and, of course, we learned a lot about how to cooperate with the European Parliament. It was something new because Parliament got a lot of new powers and rules with this Treaty. As it is a political body, you always have to be very cautious about how to deal with it. We devoted a lot of energy for that and I think it was a success of our Presidency.

I would also like to mention the EU 2020 strategy. Goals of this strategy were set back in 2010 and our duty in 2011, exactly one year after, was to evaluate and to have a more streamlined set of priorities about what the EU 2020 strategy could mean in practice and how we can translate priorities to each member state.
Another big issue during our Presidency was closing the accession negotiations with Croatia which is our neighbour. Hungary is one of those member states that emphasizes the integration of the Western Balkans to the EU and having this country to close negotiations during our Presidency was a very important thing for us.

- Can you rate Hungarian Presidency from 1 to 10? Was it successful?

 

You will see during the Latvian Presidency and the following ones that all presidencies start within exceptional circumstances and all presidencies are as successful as they can be.

This is the narrative I have learned while following presidencies closely since 2004 when we joined the EU. At the end, all presidencies are the most successful presidencies ever. And I think this lesson should be learned because that is the reality.

- What do you think of the second Hungarian Presidency - will it be easier? Have you learned some lessons?
- (laughing) Do you know when the next Hungarian Presidency will be? For Latvia it will be in 14 years, in our case – in 11 years. I wouldn’t save any kind of lessons for 11 years. It is so far away that you have no idea what kind of European Union we will have at that time.

- But are you optimistic that we will still have the EU?
- Yes, no doubt! Of course! I am sure that the EU will be stronger and more united and will give us even more prosperity, integrity, unity and opportunity.

- And to conclude, what are your first impressions about Latvia and our people?
- I arrived just a month ago. It would be too early to draw any honest conclusions. But in my previous positions and in Brussels I had many wonderful Latvian colleagues and I mainly see Latvians through them. They were excellent, efficient, very nice people and good friends – this is the image I have about Latvians. I think Latvians are open and friendly people. And your mentality is Nordic, very Nordic. That is my impression.