EU pressure mounting on Hungary
February 1st, 2024A pro-government commentator rejects as ‘worse than a mafia hit’ the alleged plans to punish Hungary if it doesn’t agree to commit to a 50 billion Euro aid package to Ukraine for the forthcoming four years.
Prime Minister Orbán told the French newspaper Le Point that Hungary is uncomfortable to be alone ’in this family’ during the EU Summit on Thursday, but wants to revise aid to Ukraine annually, as no one knows how things will evolve in the future. On the other hand, several member countries reject the Hungarian proposal to revise aid to Ukraine year by year, with approval depending on a unanimous vote each time.
On the Radio Free Europe website, Zoltán Gyévai writes that EU diplomats have mentioned several potential measures to be taken if Hungary doesn’t yield to pressure, but none of them have been seriously discussed so far. The most punishing move would be a Belgian suggestion to deny Hungary the rotating presidency of the Union starting from July this year.
On Vasárnap, Zoltán Kaszab describes plans to inflict massive blows on the Hungarian economy as a procedure ’worse than those practiced by Balkan mafias’. He doesn’t believe the reassuring remarks by unnamed Brussels officials who said the document leaked to the Financial Times on what could harm Hungary most (see BudaPost, January 31) only contains an analysis of Hungary’s vulnerabilities without proposing sanctions. He warns that plans to ‘ruin Hungary’ would hit the population of a member country and thus the European Union itself.