On 25-26 October 2024, the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), in collaboration with Solidar, the Group of Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D), and Hungarian progressive foundations will organise the “Call to Europe” conference in Budapest. Policy Solutions is proud to be official Hungarian partner of this prestigious international conference.

This Policy Solutions study shows which advantages and drawbacks Hungarians are most likely to associate with the European Union in 2024 and how they assess the economic balance of EU membership.

Book launch of “The World Through Hungarian Eyes: Foreign Policy Attitudes in Hungary in 2024” – a new publication by Policy Solutions. The event will take place on 5 July 2024.

We cordially invite you to the official book launch of “Hungarian Politics in 2023”, an annual review of Policy Solutions. The event will take place on 19 January at Aranytíz Kultúrház.

Policy Solutions' comprehensive survey reveals what the EU means for Hungarians in 2023, how Hungarian voters perceive current trends in the European Union and what changes they would like to see in the EU's priorities.

Book launch of “What kind of EU do Hungarians want: Hungarian Society and the European Union in 2023” – a new publication by Policy Solutions. The event will take place on 21 September 2023.

Policy Solutions' comprehensive survey of foreign policy attitudes reveals how Hungarian public opinion sees the world in 2023.

In a new article for the Progressive Post magazine of FEPS, András Bíró-Nagy argues that despite high support for EU membership in Hungary, over a decade of Eurosceptic rhetoric by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party has had a lasting impact on voters’ attitudes.

This publication - co-authored by Policy Solutions director András Bíró-Nagy - offers a wealth of insights into the values and attitudes of young people aged 15-29 in Central and Eastern Europe.

Policy Solutions is the official Hungarian partner of Progressive Governance Summit. Rewatch the highlights of Europe's largest conference for progressive politics!

This publication by Policy Solutions aims to go beyond the question of "remain or leave" and provide a more nuanced picture of how Hungarians see the country's place and future in the European Union.

Book launch of “How much EU do Hungarians want? Pro-EU and Eurosceptic attitudes in Hungary” – a new publication by Policy Solutions. The event will take place on 27 May 2022 at Európa Pont.

Policy Solutions economic analysis by Péter Bucsky on how effectively EU funds have been spent in Hungary since 2010.

Our joint yearbook with FEPS on the state of populism in Europe has been published.

As official partners of the Progressive Governance Summit, we highly recommend to join the discussion between 15 and 19 June 2020 about a progressive agenda for a new normality in the post-pandemic world.

Our new European Dream survey shows that our continent is still the dreamland for the Europeans.

EU14 survey presentation on European Dreams for the Future of Europe

The FEPS and Policy Solutions website of reference, the Populism Tracker sees four years of existence. This rich material is then collected in a yearly publication that we have the pleasure to share with you – "The State of Populism in Europe 2018".

The central objective of this book is to offer potential and effective answers to NGOs, politicians or anyone who wants to counter populism.

The most recent report on populism in Europe by FEPS and Policy Solutions has just been published.

This FEPS - Policy Solutions - FES Budapest book surveys the popularity and influence of populist parties in the EU in 2017. Readers can also learn in more detail about the state of populism in five EU countries where elections were held last year.

The Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) in collaboration with Policy Solutions and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Budapest cordially invite you to their joint conference, entitled: THE STATE OF POPULISM IN EUROPE IN 2017

The Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) and the Policy Solutions political research institute cordially invite you to our joint conference entitled:  „The Flexible Solidarity”  - How Progressive Parties Handled the Migration Crisis in Central Europe 

The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Budapest and Policy Solutions cordially invite you to their joint conference, entitled: ‘Hungarian MEPs - What have they done for you?’.

In this book, the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) and Policy Solutions examine how the Visegrád countries reacted to the crisis in Ukraine.

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Budapest, CEU Center for European Neighborhood Studies, Policy Solutions and Political Capital cordially invite you to their joint conference, entitled: ‘Fighting Back: Liberal Democratic Responses to the Populist Challenge’.

Although Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán is in the frontline of the fight against the current direction of the EU, the EU Parliamentarians of his Fidesz party share a more “European” view, as they still vote in line with the European People’s Party on symbolic issues – a new study conducted by VoteWatch and Policy Solutions highlights. Interesting case studies include Russia, in which, despite Viktor Orbán urge to end the punishment of Moscow, Fidesz MEPs still rejected a proposal that would have stopped sanctions against Russia.

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and Policy Solutions cordially invite you to their joint conference: ‘The State of Populism in the EU and Hungary in 2016’. The objective of our conference to forecast the political changes in Europe based on the trends of populism in 2016. We will also investigate the similarities and the differences between the Hungarian and the western European populism.

A new paper entitled "Central European MEPs as Agents of two Pincipals. Party cohesion in the European Parliament after Enlargement" has been published by András Bíró-Nagy in the European Quarterly of Political Attitudes and Mentalities.

The Populism Tracker is a comprehensive website that aims at observing the trends of populism in all the Member States of the European Union. The website allows readers to track the popularity of all European populist parties on the Populism Map, analyse the trends with the help of the continuously updated Populism Graph, and read the studies, researches and analyses on populism published by Policy Solutions, FEPS and their partners.

Policy Solutions and the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) cordially invite you to their joint event, entitled: “Politics and Leadership: How are Populist Movements attracting Millennials and why?”

​An international conference was held by Policy Solutions and the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) on 2 June 2016 in Brussels on the political background of the refugee crisis. The purpose of this joint conference was to review how politicians and the society in central and eastern Europe have responded to the current refugee crisis.

Hungary’s populist right acknowledge the damage Brexit will cause. But Prime Minister Orbán should learn the lesson that flirting with Euroscepticism domestically is a dangerous game. The lessons are obvious: if a leader goes too far, it might not be enough to counterweight years of Euroscepticism with a few months of pro-European campaigning. The analysis of András Bíró-Nagy on what Brexit means to Hungary, for Policy Network.

The aim of Policy Solutions’ study – ‘The Hungarian public and the European Union’ – is to investigate how the Hungarian public opinion has changed about the European Union since 2010, in a period when the EU had to adapt to continuous crisis management, while at the same time domestic critical voices have also increased.

The Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) and the Policy Solutions political research institute cordially invite you to our joint conference entitled: The Political Background of the Refugee Crisis in Europe.

The Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) and Policy Solutions have published their joint study to present the regional results of the Millennial Dialogue international youth research.

The Policy Solutions and the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) cordially invite you to their joint conference, entitled ‘Political Attitudes of the Millennial Generation in Hungary and Central and Eastern Europe'.

The Policy Solutions political research institute and the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament cordially invite you to our joint conference, entitled ‘The Russian presence in the European Energy Market - The Expansion of Paks NPP and other Russian Investments in the Region’.

Due to the attacks in Brussels and the terror level 4, “The political background of the refugee crisis” conference is postponed for a later date. We will keep you updated about the exact date.

Policy Solutions and the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament cordially invite you to their joint conference on the Russian presence in the European Energy Market. The objective of the event is to investigate and debate Russian energy investments in the EU and their overall impact.

European politics has become dominated both by new populist actors and the refugee crisis. If the left is to live up to these two challenges in the coming months and years, it needs to re-establish its capacity to set the political agenda away from questions of immigration and security. Tamás Boros' analysis in the Policy Network Observatory.

We are glad to inform you that Policy Solutions opened its office in Brussels in January 2016. From now on, we provide political researches, analyses and conferences for the experts, politicians and journalists working in the capital of the European Union. Our key research topics include populism, political extremism, European social democracy, and, of course, Hungarian politics. Our first events in Brussels will be held in February 2016.

We proudly announce that Policy Solutions has been approved as Hungarian member of the European Network of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS). Consequently, Policy Solutions and FEPS are going to work together in numerous research programmes, especially in the fields of populism, European democracy and contemporary social democracy.

Tamás Boros' analysis on the political background of the Hungarian refugee crisis, published by the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS).

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and Policy Solutions have jointly decided to hold a conference entitled ’The far-right and the mainstream’. The conference aims to provide an in-depth investigation of the interaction between the far-right and mainstream politics.

In following up on the success of our international think tank meeting on the state of the European left-wing parties last November, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung - Budapest and Policy Solutions organized a meeting on the subject of Inequalities in the European Union, which was held in Budapest on 10-11 June 2015.

Policy Solutions and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation have jointly decided to examine the presentation in selected major media of various foreign policy conflicts that have surfaced since autumn 2014, along with the domestic policy divisions they engender.

We would kindly like to invite you to a conference entitled The Hungarian Media and Foreign Policy Conflicts. The conference aims to review how the Hungarian media have handled the following issues over the past few months: the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the scandal surrounding the American ban on the entry of certain high level Hungarians officials and German criticisms about the state of Hungarian democracy.

From a Hungarian perspective, there seem to be two Germanies these days, which is somewhat ironic given that we are coming up on the 25th anniversary of the events that ended Germany's division.

We cordially invite you to our international conference entitled “Illiberal democracies in Europe”.The event will be held on the 28th of November 2014, and is organized by the Brussels-based Foundation for European Progressive Studies together with Táncsics Mihály Foundation. The event’s professional partner is Policy Solutions.

On 23rd July 2014 in Budapest, Policy Solutions and the European Values Think Tank (EV TT), a Prague-based public policy research institute, organized a National Seminar on political communication of integration of minorities, consisting of a roundtable discussion and public debate.

Even before the actual results were tallied, the 2014 elections to the European Parliament were regarded as unique by analysts on account of the anticipated Europe-wide rise in the strength of euro-sceptic and populist parties. The final results bore out analysts’ expectations.

The EP election in Hungary resulted in a clear victory for the governing party, Viktor Orbán's Fidesz. The national vote was characterised primarily by an internecine competition on the left and secondarily by a battle between the far-right and the left. The Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) lost the former, but left-wing parties outperformed Jobbik.

The election is over and it has ended in a clear victory for the governing party, Fidesz. This was the first sentence of our analysis in April, and it is the first sentence again. Apart from that, the election was primarily an internecine competition on the left and a battle between the far-right and the left. MSZP loses the former and the left wins the latter.

At the 2014 elections to the European Parliament, the European Socialists could attain a relative majority of votes, thereby overtaking the conservative People's Party for the first time in two decades - thus a comprehensive analysis by the Hungarian political research institute Policy Solutions, which reviewed the state of public opinion in all 28 member states.

Fidesz has made no secret of its growing dislike of the European Union and especially its representatives. Viviane Reding is only the most recent high profile target in a long series of attacks on the EU and some of its leading politicians.

Almost a year to date of his last appearance in the European Parliament, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán faced his critics again in a heated plenary session.

We will probably never know for sure whether PM Viktor Orbán meant to say no to the agreement reached at the EU summit, but the major question for now is whether Orbán’s quick reversal heralds an actual willingness to enter into the fiscal union proposed by Germany and France.

A public opinion survey project conducted jointly by Policy Solutions and Medián shows that Hungary’s term at the helm of Europe had little effect on the popular perception of the EU. Though most citizens have heard about Hungary’s position as the rotating leader of the Union, they know little about the details of the presidency and (rightly) perceive that little has changed on account of Hungary having held this office.

Hungarian foreign policy manoeuvres between an occasionally aggressive rhetoric, an ambitious ideology and a more sober and less ambitious diplomatic reality. While Fidesz has rarely gone beyond rhetoric in challenging major countries and international institutions, the few acts it has done and its occasionally loose cannon rhetoric might cause the country some grief in the future.

The first half of Hungary’s time in the spotlight of EU politics has passed. It was marred by squabbles over the media law and the ongoing debate about the constitution – in other words domestic issues that ideally should not have dominated coverage about Hungary at a time when it seeks to influence the progress and direction of European public policy.

The prime minister’s appearance in Strasbourg to introduce the Hungarian rotating presidency of the European Union yielded mixed results. From the government’s perspective, it is likely that what we posit was the overall goal – i.e. appealing to the Fidesz base at home without causing a serious backlash in Strasbourg – was achieved.

For months critics of the government’s more drastic measures have predicted that Fidesz will draw fire from the EU.

Along with the public opinion research company Median, Policy Solutions took the opportunity to explore both, the public's view of the future Hungarian presidency and EU membership in general. While Hungarians may be slightly more sceptical towards the Union than a couple of years ago, overall they remain supportive of membership and optimistic about its possibilities.