Presentation short abstract

This study examines Hungary’s role in the global EV battery supply chain, showing how EU green policies externalise social and ecological costs and reinforce authoritarian tendencies. Through action research, we explore how local and transnational movements can resist and build alternatives.

Presentation long abstract

Critical studies show that the EU’s green policies often prioritise short-term, capital-driven transitions over ecological sustainability, labour and public participation (Wigger, 2024; Vezzoni, 2023). At its core, the European Green Deal facilitates the externalisation of ecological and social costs onto peripheral countries outside the EU (Vela et al., 2023) and semi-peripheral economies within its borders (Wigger, 2022). This dynamic is particularly visible in Hungary’s electric vehicle (EV) sector, which faces growing regional and class disparities (Szabó et al., 2024) and increasing labour fragmentation (Czirfusz, 2025). Our research examines Hungary’s role in the global EV battery supply chain, showing how the centralised regime operates as a ‘bridge model’ within Europe’s industrial reconfiguration. In context of structural dependency, the regime facilitates the relocation of German car industry, attracts East Asian investments, and secures supply of Russian fossil fuels, while technological development remains concentrated in core economies of capital accumulation. Domestic capital benefits primarily through compromised procurement procedures, while foreign investors capture profits, and the Hungarian state undermines labour rights, weakens environmental protections, and suppresses resistance (Gagyi et al., 2024). Through action research, we aim to strengthen local labour and civil environmental movements, identifying avenues for collaboration. Using participatory methods, we engage civil society organisations, trade unions, labour advocates, and researchers, while establishing networks of resistance across regional and global supply chains. Our work highlights connections between local injustices and reindustrialisation, revealing how investments create green sacrifice zones, reshape labour and ecological regimes, while mapping transnational alliances challenging the prevailing green growth agenda.