The 34th Bálványos Summer University will host 500 events and 1,000 speakers under the motto “You can count on us,” providing a cultural and political platform for pragmatic Transylvanianism and realistic conservatism.Continue reading
In the coming decades, the future of the European Union will be fundamentally determined by whether political forces defending the sovereignty of Member States or European federalists gain the upper hand, said János Bóka, Minister for European Affairs, at a roundtable discussion at the Bálványos Summer University in Baile Tusnad (Tusnádfürdő).
Minister János Bóka pointed out that while federalists are seeking to expand the powers of common institutions and push national decision-making into the background, sovereigntists consider the protection of Member State competences to be a priority. He cited migration as an example, which he believes illustrates the failure of current EU policy. He said that several governments have already fallen in their own countries because of their handling of the migration situation, yet there has been no meaningful change in the European Union’s migration policy. Hungary, however, did not wait for Brussels to change course, but took matters into its own hands – with serious political and financial consequences.
We are interested in strengthening national sovereignty, not the excessive power of the Brussels institutions,”
Bóka emphasized.
Loránt Vincze, Member of the European Parliament for the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), also participated in the discussion, emphasizing that the issue of sovereignty arises differently in Transylvania.
There are as many approaches as there are Member States, cooperation and dialogue are what will move Europe forward, “
he believes.
As he put it, there are increasingly strong centralization tendencies in the European Union, which are also represented by the European Commission. In his view, the current form of EU decision-making suffers from a significant democratic deficit, particularly in relation to the rule of law mechanism, which is used as a political weapon against Member States.
The third participant in the panel discussion, political scientist Miklós Bakk, said that the ideological clash between sovereigntists and federalists will be one of the most important dividing lines in European politics in the future. He believes that this debate is not only about the future of EU institutions, but also about the room for maneuver, identity, and democratic functioning of Member States.
Via MTI; Featured photo: MTI/Kátai Edit