Gergely Gulyás, Head of the Prime Minister's Office, said the speech Ursula von der Leyen delivered on the state of the European Union in the European Parliament on Wednesday was a “huge disappointment”.
The prime minister’s chief of staff told MTI that the president of the European Commission (EC) failed to address the most important issues or put forward a plan to stop Europe’s competitive backsliding on the global stage. Instead of prioritizing the protection of Europe’s borders and halting migration, Von der Leyen was pursuing a pro-migration policy, he added. Also, the EC was overstepping its powers by interfering in the child and family protection laws of a member state, Gulyás said. “It’s untenable that the commission trumpets the success of its crisis management while only some member states have access to the EU’s post-pandemic economic recovery funds,” he said, adding that this approach distorted competition within the bloc. Gulyás insisted that the commission has broken the terms by which member states such as Hungary had consented to establishing the recovery fund.