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The European Commission is using contrived arguments to justify the application of the rule of law conditionality against Hungary, while Brussels’ real goal is to replace the Hungarian government, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Piotr Wawrzyk said in an interview published on Tuesday.
Wawrzyk was speaking to Poland’s PAP news agency about the European Commission’s (EC) proposal to suspend part of the cohesion funds due to Hungary over concerns about the mismanagement of EU funds.
Asked by the PAP news agency whether he thought these concerns were justified, Wawrzyk said the proposal was “certainly not for the reasons described by the Commission, as the Brussels body does not launch similar procedures against other Member States, where according to EC reports, there are indeed serious corruption problems in the use of EU funds.
So we see that we are dealing with a kind of contrived argument,”
the Polish diplomat noted.
Asked what the Commission’s real objective is, Wawrzyk said that “as with the action against Poland, their objective is to replace the Hungarian government.” He explained that
the Commission “does not like certain governments because they do not share the views of the so-called European mainstream.”
The panel therefore “uses various legal tricks” to try to replace these governments, Wawrzyk said, adding that “so far this procedure has been practically fruitless.”
Asked whether Hungary would indeed lose EU funds, the Deputy Minister said the Commission would certainly seek to set a deterrent example to governments that did not follow its policy. But Poland “certainly cannot support such solutions,” Wawrzyk stressed.
This is not the first time recently that Poland has publicly sided with Hungary in the rule of law debate.
On Sunday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also stated that Poland would strongly oppose the European institutions depriving Hungary of EU funds.
Last week, the European Parliament adopted a report about the rule of law in Hungary, according to which, “Hungary can no longer be considered a full democracy.” During the debate about the report, a Slovak MEP also stood up in defense of Hungary. Miroslav Radačovský from the Slovak Patriot party said he disagreed with the resolution of the Parliament in relation to Hungary.
Featured photo via Pixabay
