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The new proposed EU budget is a non-starter as far as the Hungarian Government is concerned, warned Viktor Orbán in an interview on Kossuth Radio’s Good Morning Hungary program. The Prime Minister said that at least 20 percent (under some estimates 25 percent) of the EU budget, and thus Hungarian money, would go straight to Ukraine, a non-EU member.
Some 10 to 12 percent of the budget now goes to interest payments on jointly taken loans. The Prime Minister explained that the biggest problem with the current budget is that it lacks a clear strategic basis. “If we do not know what it is for, then it cannot be good, because we first have to answer the question of what goals we want to achieve with it.” As he said,
the EU budget has only one obvious goal, which is to bring Ukraine into the EU and transfer these funds to Ukraine.
According to the him, the right approach would be to establish a cooperative relationship with Ukraine rather than offering them full membership. He also said that there is uncertainty not only in the case of Ukraine, but also in terms of money being lost from agriculture. “What will happen to farmers if the EU does not support them in the future? In his opinion, this budget will not even survive the next year. According to Viktor Orbán, European countries will not accept this budget.
The Prime Minister pointed our that the European Commission (EC) has no concrete vision for the future of European agriculture, their aim is only to prop up the agrarian sector in Ukraine instead. Orbán questioned the fact that while Ukrainian agricultural products will have free access to our markets, European subsidies to our own farmers are being reduced. He warned that once Ukraine is an EU Member State, from then on, its economic problems will become our economic problem too. If that happens, the money will have to be pumped into their wounded economy for decades.
He accused the EC of preparing a budget of “hopelessness.”
What we see is not an optimistic union, but a union in trouble, floundering and settling for stagnation.
Speaking about the recent tragedy, in which Ukrainian army recruiters beat a Hungarian man to death during forced conscription, Orbán pointed out that Brussels was surprised by the government’s request to place three Ukrainian military leaders on the EU sanctions list who can be tied to the violent death of the victim, József Sebestyén. As he said, this is not a Hungarian problem but a European one, as the victim was also an EU citizen.
These are not isolated cases, he pointed out. He called incidents of forced conscription a “manhunt,” saying that these are now an everyday occurrence in our Eastern neighbor as also pointed out by international bodies. The case is not only concerning bilateral relations between Ukraine and Hungary, but it is a matter that should be taken up on a European level. He added that Hungary has already imposed sanctions on the three persons responsible on a bilateral basis, but this should be replicated on a European level.
According to the Prime Minister, Brussels’ silence on this matter is embarrassing. He pointed out that in EU institutions, one can only hear about Ukraine having made significant progress towards accession in terms of respect for human rights, fighting corruption, etc. The EU would have us believe that Ukraine is not only ready for membership, but overdue for it. Those who know Ukraine well – such as its neighbors – think differently, according to the Prime Minister.
According to Orbán,
the fact that Ukrainian army recruiters beat a man to death during forced conscription, clearly shows that the EU’s claims are not true.
He believes that Brussels should investigate this, but instead they want to sweep the issue under the rug. As he said, the case of József Sebestyén is important to us, it is a matter of honor. This should be approached from the perspective of the human rights commissioner’s report.
Speaking about the lackluster reaction of the Hungarian left-wing opposition, the Prime Minister said that it is not a new phenomenon in Hungarian politics that certain parties always side with foreign interests. This is true of Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party and of the Democratic Coalition (DK). It is a “subordinate relationship.” There are parties that believe and accept that we Hungarians cannot be right, and they thrive on saying so, Orbán concluded.
Featured Image: Facebook Viktor Orbán, Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda