Brief

RUBIO backs ORBÁN ahead of Hungarian elections, raising interference concerns

Paul Delor

Paul Delor

— 3 min read

Today in Brief

  • US Secretary of State RUBIO visits Budapest and publicly backs ORBÁN two months before Hungarian legislative elections, with FIDESZ trailing in the polls.
  • Ukraine exploits the disconnection of Russian forces from Starlink to launch counter-attacks in Zaporizhzhia, pushing Russian lines back by up to ten kilometres in some sectors.
  • At the Eurogroup, the Commission presents a set of actions to strengthen the international role of the euro.
  • The Commission closes its antitrust investigation into Edwards Lifesciences after the company withdraws a policy that may have restricted physicians from working with competitors.

EU-US Relations

US Secretary of State RUBIO publicly backs ORBÁN two months before Hungarian legislative elections.

M. Marco RUBIO concluded his European tour in Budapest on Monday, having passed through Munich and Bratislava. At a joint press conference with Prime Minister M. Viktor ORBÁN, he said the Trump administration is "deeply committed" to ensuring M. ORBÁN's success, and suggested the United States could offer financial support if Hungary faced economic difficulties. He added: "Your success is our success. This relationship we have in central Europe because of you is essential and vital to our national interests in the years ahead." M. RUBIO also framed the visit as part of a "golden era" in bilateral relations, explicitly linking it to ORBÁN's personal relationship with President Donald TRUMP. M. ORBÁN's FIDESZ party is currently running more than six points behind the opposition TISZA party of M. Péter MAGYAR in the polls ahead of April's legislative elections. ORBÁN's campaign centres on a peace narrative tied to his proximity to both President Donald TRUMP and President Vladimir PUTIN. According to the Financial Times, the European Commission has been considering moderating its public criticism of M. ORBÁN to avoid being seen as interfering in the elections, a calculation that M. RUBIO's visit now complicates. A January Gallup poll found that a majority of FIDESZ supporters approve of Russian leadership.

War in Ukraine

Ukraine exploits the disconnection of Russian forces from Starlink to mount counter-attacks in Zaporizhzhia.

Ukrainian Defence Minister M. Mykhaïlo FEDOROV announced on 5 February that all Starlink terminals used illegally by Russian forces had been cut off, following work to compile a whitelist of terminals authorised for Ukrainian use. The disconnection caused a near-halving of Starlink network traffic recorded in Ukraine. Russian forces have been using Starlink illegally for at least two years, obtaining terminals through third countries, notably in the Gulf, and more recently integrating them into drones capable of striking targets at distances of up to 500 kilometres. Pro-Russian Telegram accounts, including posts by prominent military blogger M. Yuri PODOLYAKA, described the cut-off as causing widespread communications chaos. The impact was compounded days later by Kremlin restrictions on Telegram, which Russian soldiers use extensively. Ukrainian forces, unaffected by the disconnection, used the disruption to launch localised counter-attacks. In Zaporizhzhia, where Russia had been concentrating offensive resources since the start of the year, Ukrainian forces pushed Russian lines back by up to ten kilometres in some sectors, according to Ukrainian analyst Mangouste. The Institute for the Study of War noted on 12 February that Ukraine had conducted "localised and opportunistic counter-attacks" near the Dnipropetrovsk-Zaporizhzhia border, likely to take advantage of the Starlink and Telegram disruptions.

Economy & Finance

At the Eurogroup, the Commission presents actions to strengthen the international role of the euro.

Commissioner M. Valdis DOMBROVSKIS presented the Eurogroup with a set of possible actions to expand the euro's role in global trade and finance, responding to a call from EU leaders last year. He argued that a stronger international role for the euro would support the EU's de-risking strategy, lower borrowing costs, and reduce exposure to exchange rate volatility. Priority areas include making EU retail payment systems more autonomous, built around the digital euro's infrastructure; enhancing issuance of euro-denominated digital assets; and reducing fragmentation of the EU's regional financial safety net. M. DOMBROVSKIS stressed that the euro's global appeal depends first on the strength of the European economy, pointing to the Savings and Investments Union, the digital euro proposal, and trade diversification as the necessary foundations. The meeting also included a discussion with Canadian Finance Minister M. François-Philippe CHAMPAGNE on global macroeconomic imbalances, which reached 4% of global GDP in 2024, the highest level since the early 2010s outside of 2020. M. Tuomas SAARENHEIMO was reappointed as President of the Eurogroup Working Group.

Competition

The Commission closes its antitrust investigation into Edwards Lifesciences after the company withdraws a contested policy.

The European Commission has closed its investigation into Edwards Lifesciences, a US-based producer of cardiovascular medical devices, following the company's withdrawal of its Global Unilateral Pro-Innovation Policy, known as the UPIP. The Commission had been examining whether the policy restricted physicians' freedom to participate in clinical trials and scientific activities sponsored by competing manufacturers of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation devices, a minimally invasive procedure used to treat aortic stenosis. By limiting competitors' access to physicians' expertise, Edwards Lifesciences could have made it harder for rivals to establish their products in the European Economic Area. The Commission carried out unannounced inspections at Edwards Lifesciences' premises in September 2023. The closure of the investigation is not a finding that the conduct complied with EU competition rules.

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