This edited volume examines Hungary’s paradoxical trajectory within the European Union: despite substantial economic integration and dependence on EU markets and funding, the country has become one of the EU’s most vocal political challengers. Addressing a gap in existing literature, the volume investigates how Hungary’s domestic political and policy choices have interacted with EU regulatory influences since accession in 2004. Conceptualizing the EU as both an opportunity structure and a source of constraint, the book employs a within-case design to analyze developments across key policy areas—economic governance, industrial and agricultural policy, social policy, regional development, and legal harmonization. It further explores Hungary’s selective adaptation to EU norms, its avoidance of Eurozone membership, and the domestic use of EU funds. Unique to this volume is its integration of societal perspectives, including public opinion on EU integration and the drivers of Hungarian Euroscepticism. By situating Hungary as an extreme case of semi-peripheral development in a transnational regulatory environment, the volume provides broader insights into the limitations of EU influence and the contested nature of integration in small, open economies.