While Hungary’s domestic budget focuses on security and stability – responding to the will of the voters – the draft of the EU’s 2021-2027 budgetary cycle fails to address the most important threats ahead of the bloc. Instead, it drives the European Commission’s agenda to erode the authority of national governments in matters that are clearly national responsibilities.
The creeping authority of Brussels is nothing new, but with this budget it goes too far: the draft’s rule-of-law clause, linking cohesion fund payments to certain criteria, presents a typical example of sneaky legislation that contradicts basics in the EU’s founding treaties.
Moreover, The EU’s proposed budget would openly reallocate funds from poorer states to richer ones, and that, according to Gergely Gulyás, the minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office, is “unacceptable.”
“The Hungarian government,” said Minister Gulyás, “is only able to accept an EU budget that does not penalize performance and countries that are able to generate more substantial economic growth.” This, as Hungary sees it, is exactly what would happen if the draft were adopted.
That’s not the only reason this document is unacceptable. The proposal would take funds from European citizens and hand more support to migrants. Hungary also strongly rejects the EC plan to develop the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) into a tool for political blackmail for the purpose of pushing through a “dual-budget,” one designed exclusively for the members of the Eurozone.
What Hungary would like to see in the next EU budget is simple: financial support for the border protection efforts of member states and a fair distribution of the financial burden resulting from Britain’s departure from the bloc. When we see how the current draft discriminates against the economies that have become the driving force behind the EU’s economic growth, we find that “unacceptable.”