The justice minister said the European Parliament has been more of a problem than a solution during the pandemic.
“It seems like it is no different in the case of the negotiations on the European Digital Green Certificate. While the Member States agree on what kind of certificate they would consider acceptable for their citizens, MEPs are blocking the agreement,” Justice Minister Judit Varga said in an English-language post on Facebook on Thursday.
“As the negotiations concern measures restricting free movement in order to protect public health, Member States believe that this system can be implemented without the involvement of the European Parliament, thus listening to their standpoint remains simply a gesture,” she added.
Minister Varga said the situation was properly illustrated by the fact that news portal Politico, “which cannot be accused for promoting the idea of Europe of nations, has also noticed the increasing number of national governments asking the same question: why should they suddenly involve the European Parliament in decisions that previously have not even been agreed with their neighbors?”. “This is exactly the question we should ask more and more often,” she added.
“The European institutions take it for granted that the development of the Union is only possible by taking more and more powers away from the Member States. We think differently. Only strong Member States can build a strong Europe,” she said. The minister said a key issue in the series of conferences on the future of Europe, launched on 9 May, is the direction in which the European Union shall move forward. “We share the approach of transferring competencies to the Union only in cases in which the Member States are unable to carry out the task effectively,” she said. “We need a smarter Europe, not more, and this has been finally recognised by the liberal media too,” Minister Varga said in her post.