The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called on the Prime Minister of Hungary, which presides over the EU, Viktor Orbán, to take joint action in the fight against illegal migration and organized crime, to remove artificial obstacles for the work of European companies on the Hungarian market, and to abandon Russian energy sources.
“This is not a fight against illegal migration in Europe. This is not the defense of our Union. It’s just throwing problems over the neighbor’s fence,” – said she spoke about the Hungarian authorities’ decision to release smugglers and human traffickers early from prison, speaking in the European Parliament on Wednesday.
Von der Leyen emphasized that success in protecting the EU’s external borders is possible only if the work against organized crime is joint.
“How can it be that the Hungarian government invites Russian citizens to our Union without additional security checks? This makes the new Hungarian visa scheme a security threat not only for Hungary, but also for all member states,” – noted President of the European Commission.
“And how can it be that the Hungarian government will allow the Chinese police to operate on its territory? This is not a defense of European sovereignty. This is a loophole for foreign interference,” she added.
Von der Leyen acknowledged the need to complete the development of anti-smuggling legislation, strengthen the European border agency Frontex and Europol, but again expressed confidence in achieving success only with greater European cooperation and full respect for the rule of law and fundamental values.
In her speech, the President of the European Commission recalled Orbán’s words during Hungary’s first presidency of the EU in 2011, when he said that the country would follow in the footsteps of the revolutionaries of 1956 and serve the cause of European unity.
In this connection, she appealed to the Hungarian people. “We are one family. Your story is our story. Your future is our future. 10 million Hungarians are 10 million good reasons to continue to shape our future together,” emphasized von der Leyen.
Among the three most pressing problems facing the EU during the second Hungarian presidency, she singled out the war in Ukraine, competitiveness and migration. The President of the European Commission reminded that Ukraine is entering the third winter of the war, and Russia is trying to make it the hardest of all, destroying energy infrastructure, cities and killing Ukrainians.
“And yet there are some who blame this war not on the invader, but on the captured. Not Putin’s thirst for power, but Ukraine’s thirst for freedom. Therefore, I want to ask them: Will they ever blame the Czechs and Slovaks for the Soviet repressions of 1968? Will they blame the Lithuanians for the Soviet repressions of 1991?” – said von der Leyen.
“We Europeans may have a different history and different languages, but there is no such European language in which peace would be synonymous with surrender. And sovereignty would be synonymous with occupation,” added the president of the European Commission, comparing the people of Ukraine to the heroes fighting for freedom who freed Central and Eastern Europe from Soviet rule.
The President of the European Commission emphasized that there is only one way to achieve a just peace for Ukraine and Europe – to continue strengthening the Ukrainian resistance with political, financial and military support. She confirmed the statement that the EU will provide Ukraine with up to EUR35 billion in loans as part of the $50 billion promised by the G7, which will be repaid from additional revenues from frozen Russian assets.
While sharing concerns about the EU’s declining competitiveness, which Mario Draghi pointed out in his report and which Orbán spoke about in the European Parliament on Wednesday morning, the der Leyen Foundation also noted that the Hungarian government is moving in the opposite direction, moving away from the EU’s single market.
“How can the government attract more European investment if at the same time it discriminates against European companies by taxing them more than others? How can he attract more companies if at the same time he imposes export restrictions at once? And how can the government have trust among European businesses if it targets them with arbitrary inspections, blocks their permits, if government contracts mostly go to a small group of beneficiaries?” – said the president of the European Commission.
This creates uncertainty and undermines investor confidence, she said, while Hungary has been overtaken by its Central European neighbors in terms of GDP per capita.
Von der Leyen also called for a joint plan for decarbonisation and growth and a final phase-out of “dirty” Russian fossil fuels. She recalled that almost immediately after Russia’s full-scale invasion, European leaders met in Versailles and all 27 agreed to diversify away from Russian fossil fuels as soon as possible. She emphasized that after a thousand days, Europe has really diversified, building infrastructure and new connections with reliable partners, investing in cheap and clean energy produced in Europe, bringing the share of domestic electricity from renewable sources to 50%.
“But not everyone acted in accordance with the Versailles commitments. Instead of looking for alternative sources, one member state in particular simply looked for alternative ways to buy fossil fuels from Russia. Russia has proven more than once that it is simply not a reliable supplier. There can be no more excuses. Anyone who wants Europe’s energy security must first of all contribute to it.
Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán, who spoke before it, said that the situation in the EU is now much more serious than in 2011, and perhaps “this is the most serious period in the history of the European Union.” Among the problems he named the war in Ukraine and serious conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, which face the risk of escalation, the migration crisis, the risk of the collapse of the Schengen zone and the loss of Europe from the point of view of global competitiveness.
Among the problems with the EU’s productivity, Orbán, in addition to the lag in digital technologies and problems with demographics, mentioned that EU companies pay two to three times more for energy than in the US, and four to five times more for natural gas. “Abandoning Russian energy… put the growth of the EU’s GDP at risk,” he said, adding that the green transition itself is a solution to this problem.
Speaking about the protection of the EU’s external borders, he called for significant support for countries with such borders, to allow entry into the EU only with permits, and to create a system of Schengen summits. At the same time, Orbán supported the full accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen zone by the end of the year.
The Prime Minister of Hungary also called for speeding up the accession of the Western Balkans to the EU, calling it a key issue for Europe.
“We need to focus, in particular, on Serbia. Without Serbia joining the EU, we will not be able to stabilize the Balkans. As long as Serbia is not a member of the European Union, the Balkans will remain an unstable region,” Orban said.
In addition, he stated the need to support the agricultural sector in Europe, which is affected by climate conditions, rapidly increasing costs, as well as imports from third countries and excessive regulation, and called for an end to the situation where a quarter of the EU’s population lives in regions where the level of development does not reach 75% of the EU average.
