He urged the representatives of the Commission to make decisions on the disbursement of funds in accordance with their own professional position.Continue reading
In an interview with Magyar Nemzet, Tibor Navracsics, Minister of Regional Development, spoke about the situation of EU funds, the crisis of Christian democracy, Ukraine’s accession to the EU, and the importance of the Hungarian Presidency.
Three operational programs are currently under suspension following a decision by the council last December. These are Top plus, for territorial and urban development, Kehop plus, for energy efficiency and the environment, and Ikop plus, the transport operational programs’ 55 percent of the 2021-27 parts. Of these three operational programs, 45 percent is already freely available.
To receive the funds, the rule of law procedure against Hungary, launched in April 2022 after the parliamentary elections, would need to be withdrawn. However, this is politically unlikely, as the European Council would then have to declare that Hungary fully meets all the requirements.
We can see that this procedure is being kept alive for political reasons, but we will continue to negotiate,”
he added.
On Ukraine’s possible accession to the EU, he said that because of the country’s low agricultural and cohesion indicators, it would take (together with Moldova) the vast majority of the funds currently available, thousands of billions of euros.
Ukraine is a country at war, defending its own land while part of its territory is under occupation. It therefore cannot meet one of the basic conditions for opening accession negotiations because it cannot say how much territory and population it actually controls, he continued.
This is a factor of uncertainty that is risky for the future of the entire European Union.
Via Facebook / Navracsics Tibor
The situation of Christian democracy in Europe is interpreted by the minister as a state of decline. It is difficult to predict whether this is a temporary or a permanent situation.
Mr. Navracsics believes that it is a transitional state
and that the relative decline of Christian democracy is partly due to the fact that this tendency in Western Europe has abandoned the path set out by the great founding fathers after the Second World War.
The Hungarian presidency and the upcoming European Parliamentary elections could be a good opportunity for Christian democracy to regain the support of the European voters.
If Hungary can effectively mediate disputes in the new European Parliament, which will be formed in July, it could also contribute to raising the prestige of Christian democracy in Central Europe, the minister continued.
He summarized the near future of Europe and the EU as follows:
European integration is in crisis according to popular opinion. What is new now is the external environment, the fact that there is a war right on the borders of the EU. This makes the functioning of European integration much more uncertain. Another new development is the emergence of much sharper political conflicts in European internal politics. The poles and fault lines that are common within Member States have begun to emerge. The result, in his perception, is that we have to prepare for a much more intense and much more conflictual European policy than hitherto.
Via Magyar Nemzet; Featured Image: Pixabay