Until a couple of weeks ago, Hungary's government under Viktor Orbán held the EU Council Presidency – „the worst in EU history“, according to Green MEP Daniel Freund. He justifies this view by pointing out that under Hungary's leadership, only eight legislative procedures were concluded – while normally more than five times that amount would be expected. This accusation, however, is unfair. The reason so few dossiers were negotiated had more to do with sorting out the newly elected EU Parliament and government crises in Paris and Berlin, rather than any ineptitude on the part of the EU Council Presidency.

Despite this, the MEP has a point, only not because of the low number of concluded EU files. This key figure is, in times of growing concerns about regulatory overload, a questionable criterion anyway. Instead, it’s due to Orbán's arrogance in using embarrassing stunts in Beijing, Moscow, and Mar-a-Lago to profile himself at the expense of EU unity. In this regard, it’s a blessing that Hungary's disastrous EU Council Presidency has finally come to an end. Because, especially in times of geopolitical crises, trade tensions, and acute threats to decades-long shared values and beliefs, an EU Council Presidency today must primarily be judged on its ability and will to unite the EU internally, and strengthen it externally.

On the one hand, the problems with global partners and adversaries have become extremely complicated. This applies to the appropriate response to provocations by Elon Musk and Donald Trump, as well as to finding the right balance in relations with China. In both cases, it’s about a new dimension of confrontation, not just tariffs. On the other hand, centrifugal forces within the European Union have grown. The number of national governments that make it increasingly difficult to reach common positions through disruption is steadily increasing: Hungary, Slovakia, and soon possibly Austria.

This makes it more than fortunate that the Council's calendar involves the transition of the presidency from Hungary to Poland. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk is seen as a leading figure and European beacon of hope – someone trusted to strengthen the internal cohesion of the EU.

Having previously served as President of the European Council, he has proven his talent as a European mediator. Additionally, Poland’s government has clearly committed to some central issues ahead of the EU Presidency: Ukraine should be able to count on EU support, and the EU must take measures to strengthen its own resilience. The motto for the next six months is no coincidence: „Security, Europe!“

Although EU diplomats point out that Poland has presidential elections in the spring, and that the election campaign could limit Tusk's capacity for European policy, the EU partners' hopes are still focused on Poland because there are few other options. The Franco-German tandem is out of the picture, at least in the coming weeks. At the same time, it remains unclear how far Italy's commitment and loyalty to the EU’s common interests actually reaches – especially since Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently raised doubts during her brief trip to see Trump.

For many years, the focus of banks, stock exchanges, investors, and funds on what happens in Brussels was limited to details of financial market regulation. Unfortunately, that has fundamentally changed. Wars, energy shortages, raw material dependence, and trade barriers now pose higher risks to the banking sector than capital buffers or reporting requirements. Poland, as the newly started EU Council Presidency, has an incredibly important role to play in contributing to the hope that, as soon as possible, the everyday controversies surrounding Mifid, CSRD, and the like will once again be at the top of the agenda at summits and ministerial meetings.