Anybody who thought that December’s pre-Christmas summit would be a perfect opportunity to gently wind down with mulled wine, lebkuchen, and panettone will be cruelly disappointed. Instead, the stage is set for a multi-billion euro battle royale between Hungary and, it appears, the rest of the EU.
On Tuesday, Hungary effectively blocked €18 billion of EU aid to Ukraine in a bid to force the European Commission to blink in its seemingly never-ending stand-off over money from the EU’s recovery fund.
The Commission last week said it would not pay €13.3 billion in EU funds and coronavirus recovery money to Hungary due to concerns over corruption.
Viktor Orbán’s government contends that it did not veto the proposal because the matter was not put to a formal vote.
While technically true, this is sophistry on an impressive scale. The reason a vote was not taken was precisely because Budapest’s Finance Minister Mihály Varga expressed his government’s unequivocal opposition at a finance minister’s meeting.
“Hungary considers it a dangerous precedent that the payment of EU funds to Hungary is linked to other, completely unrelated issues,” said Mr Varga.
Budapest’s rationale could hardly be any clearer.
The reality, however, is that for all Fidesz’s undenied political dominance at home, it is in a distinctly weak position in Brussels.
Having decided not to block the sanctions regimes against Russia, even though Orbán’s spokesman Zoltán Kovács says they are “destroying European economies”, Budapest appears to have calculated that its only real leverage lies in blocking things that it says it supports – such as aid for Ukraine, and NATO accession for Finland and Sweden.
In doing so, however, it risks alienating allies such as Poland, who are at the frontline of the EU’s response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In the meantime, the rhetoric bashing the EU institutions has intensified.
Kovács argues that the root of the dispute with the Commission over the EU funds also lies in Hungary’s opposition to the EU’s promoting “LGBTQ propaganda in schools” – something that will no doubt come as news to EU officials – and because the EU’s “left-liberal leadership wanted to install a left-wing government in the last election”.
Again, it is a stretch to describe a coalition including the conservative former far-right Jobbik party as ‘left-wing’.
This communications strategy might shore up votes at home but as a means to secure the billions of euros of recovery fund money that the cash-strapped Orbán government needs it is difficult to think of more counterproductive tactics.
It’s tempting to ask what the Orbán government thinks is the political end-game to this strategy of permanent conflict.
Fidesz officials say most Hungarians are pro-European. Yet, as the UK’s David Cameron found out, if you use the EU institutions as a punch bag ad infinitum, you can’t be surprised when you find yourself at the EU’s exit door.
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The Roundup
Germany on Wednesday (7 December) detained 25 members and supporters of a far-right group that prosecutors said were preparing a violent overthrow of the state, with some members suspected of plotting an armed attack on the parliament.
A surprise deal struck by EU legislators early Wednesday morning (7 December) affirms that the tax on aviation carbon emissions will continue to apply only to flights within Europe, in a blow to environmental campaigners who had lobbied for complete coverage.
The EU on Wednesday (7 December) escalated disputes with China to the WTO, requesting panels hear cases over trade restrictions on Lithuania and legal recourse for EU patent holders.
A new EU Council text puts Software-as-a-Service outside of the scope of the Cyber Resilience Act, while the European Commission clarified the legal basis would not allow for it.
The European Commission proposed new rules on Wednesday (7 December) to make sure parentage links established in one EU member state are recognised everywhere in the Union.
European motorists could find Russian diesel in their tanks even after bans take effect because regulators lack tools to trace the origin of fuel when it has passed through other countries.
Proponents of an EU directive to ensure the quality of traineeships across the bloc have reason to be optimistic about EU action, according to María Rodríguez Alcázar, the president-elect of the European Youth Forum, an advocacy group working on behalf of national youth councils and nongovernment youth organisations.
Last but not least, don’t miss this week’s Green Brief: Farewell, tiny shampoo bottles.
Look out for…
- Justice and Home Affairs Council.
- Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič delivers speech at ‘Energy Symposium 49+2 – Fit for 55: Realistic climate policy beyond the crisis winter’.
- Conference on the 30th anniversary of the Single Market, organised by the Czech EU Council presidency.
- Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi meets with Besniki Bislimi, deputy prime minister for European Integration of the Republic of Kosovo.
- Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager and Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis debate recent developments in the work of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council with the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade.
Views are the author’s.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]
Source: euractiv.com
