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A conservative and a left-wing pundit comment on the decision to grant candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova. Both accuse the EU of failing to use the opportunity to further its geopolitical interests.
Hungarian press roundup by budapost.eu
Magyar Hírlap’s Mariann Őry comments on the EU decision to grant candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova by claiming that the EU missed an opportunity to reform itself. As for the decision, Őry believes that it is purely symbolic as the two new candidate countries are unlikely to meet accession criteria any time soon. The conservative pundit agrees with Prime Minister Orbán that in order to strengthen its capacity to challenge the multiple crises it faces, the EU should abandon plans to create a highly centralized superstate that would replace the ‘Europe of nations’ he believes in. Most importantly, the EU should also take back the power it outsourced to ‘foreign-ruled networks including the Soros-network’ that serve the interests of the US Democratic Party, Őry adds. She also supports the proposal put forward by Hungarian government politicians that the European Parliament should be reformed, and directly elected representatives should be replaced by national representatives delegated by member state parliaments. Unless the EU is reformed along the lines proposed by the Hungarian Prime Minister, the EU risks undermining its own economic interests and even its security, as sanctions on Russia may easily lead to a war, Őry contends.
In Népszava, Tamás Rónay also thinks that the EU missed an opportunity to further its geopolitical objectives. The left-wing columnist suggests that despite granting candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, the EU’s commitment to further enlargement is lukewarm at best. He recalls that Western Balkans candidate states have been candidates for years, but are still far from becoming full members of the EU. Rónay suspects that the same fate awaits Ukraine and Moldova. As EU skepticism is on the rise within the Union, and the candidate states do not meet the basic democratic criteria, it is very unlikely that they can join the EU in the foreseeable future, Rónay notes. If countries stuck in such limbo ever get disappointed with the EU, they may easily try to find strategic alliances in the East – which could have ‘dramatic geopolitical consequences’, Rónay fears.
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