János Bóka, the minister of EU affairs, said cooperation between “Europe’s oligarchs” is setting the direction for European Union policymaking.
“They [the oligarchs] are attempting to suppress and question the European identity of anyone outside their circle," Bóka said. He said Ursula von der Leyen had been re-elected as European Commission president thanks to the votes of “liberals and greens that suffered the largest losses” at the recent European parliamentary elections, but she “categorically refuses to cooperate” with strengthened right-wing groups such as ECR and Patriots for Europe. “This indicates that the EC’s political platform will be extremely vulnerable in the next five years,” he added. Bóka insisted that several components in von der Leyen’s programme, such as efforts to strengthen competitiveness, defence policy and agricultural policy, “echo subjects in the policies of the European People’s Party and groups to the right”. But her “real supporters” were to the left of the EPP, he said. The minister said the new EC was “a kind of party political committee” since von der Leyen “has clearly defined certain political forces that she does not wish to cooperate with, rather making policies against them” in the next five years. Von der Leyen and the EU’s policies “go in the direction of federalism”, Bóka said, adding that “she wants to create a European investigative agency out of Europol and make Frontex a European border guard”, which, he said, would “lay the foundations of a European intelligence service”. “Those federalist endeavours are not supported by members unconditionally,” he added. Meanwhile, under von der Leyen’s plans, the EC would be granted “complete control” over community funding, while the current budgeting system “based on programmes and projects” would be eliminated, Bóka said. “Instead, she wants a budget drafted on a political basis, which would tie access to community funding to serious reforms and political preconditions,” he said, adding that the plans were aimed at a complete restructuring of the EU budget. “It will be impossible for an outsider to see what sums the commission wants to spend and for what purpose,” he added.