Bilateral economic relations are developing dynamically between the two countries.Continue reading
The conclusion to be drawn from the EU’s failed economic policy in recent years should be that Brussels should give back to the member states the power to manage economic policy, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó emphasized in Warsaw on Tuesday.
He said after an informal meeting of EU trade ministers that there was a consensus among participants that the EU is facing very serious economic challenges and has lost much of its competitiveness in recent years. However, opinions are now divided on the reasons for this and the way out.
We believe that the disgraceful performance of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over the past five years has led to the European Union being in the worst position of the major players in the world economy to look forward to the new global economic era,”
he said. To back this up, he pointed out that ten years ago, thirty-six of the world’s 100 largest companies were European, while now the number has fallen to fourteen, and zero in the top ten. “In ten years, the European Union’s share of world economic output has fallen from 22 to 17 percent, as the United States has increasingly overtaken us and China has caught up and overtaken us,” he continued.
Péter Szijjártó deplored the inability of the European Commission to conclude even a single investment protection agreement in recent years. He reminded of the extremely slow progress of free trade agreements as well, with the Brussels body interfering in the process with issues that have nothing to do with economic cooperation issues, such as LGBT rights.
He pointed out that
the previous model of economic growth based on a combination of advanced Western technologies and cheap Eastern raw materials is now a thing of the past and has not been replaced.
The Foreign Minister called the over-politicization and over-ideologization of economic issues a serious mistake, which has led to the EU isolating itself from the two biggest players in the world economy, the US and China. “The failure and incompetence of the European Commission over the last five years has led to the fact that it is now easy to impose tariffs on the European Union in the United States,” he said.
He emphasized that
the future of the world economy lies in East-West cooperation based on common sense, and that Hungary is therefore in an advantageous position because of its strategy of economic neutrality, making the country an important meeting point for Eastern and Western companies.
In this context, he said it was important to draw conclusions from the past years. “If Europe does not want to lose the global economic race for good, then economic policy must be left to the member states instead of Brussels. It is time for Brussels to stop taking away the powers of the Member States and to recognize that the economy has been managed much better at Member State level,” he underlined. According to Péter Szijjártó, member states should be given greater scope to conclude investment protection agreements. In this context, he pointed out that Hungary have twelve in the last five years, while the European Union has negotiated zero. He added that Brussels should also take a step back in the negotiations on investment support.
Via MTI, Featured photo via Facebook/Péter Szijjártó