Relationship dossier
Austria
Hungary
Relationship assessment
A cooperative relationship with established cross-border ties and periodic political friction.
Austria toward Hungary
+20Austria joined Hungary in establishing a treaty framework for good-neighbourly relations and has participated in cross-border cooperation with Hungary. Austrian officials have also voiced criticism of Hungarian government policies, including on rule of law and media freedom.
Hungary toward Austria
+20Hungary joined Austria in establishing a treaty framework for good-neighbourly relations and has participated in cross-border cooperation with Austria. Hungarian government policy has at times differed from Austrian positions on migration and related border measures.
Overall relationship
+20The relationship combines a formal framework for good-neighbourly cooperation and practical cross-border ties with recurring disagreements over migration and Hungarian domestic policies. EU membership provides an additional setting for cooperation but has not removed these political differences.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
Austria and Hungary maintain a cooperative bilateral relationship grounded in their 1992 Treaty on Good-Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation and sustained cross-border cooperation. Their EU membership provides a framework for further coordination. Relations also face periodic strain over migration and Austrian criticism of Hungarian government policies.
Areas of tension
- Austrian criticism of Hungarian rule-of-law and media policies.
- Disagreements over migration policy and border measures.
Key developments
Austria and Hungary signed the Treaty on Good-Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation, establishing a framework for bilateral relations.
Hungary joined the European Union, creating a shared institutional framework with Austria for cooperation.
Major uncertainties
- The scope and current implementation of bilateral cross-border cooperation are unclear.
- The extent to which disagreements over migration and Hungarian domestic policies affect practical government cooperation is uncertain.