Brussels, 16/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - Hungary will not be a colony and Hungarians will not be second class Europeans, said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Hungarian National Day on Thursday 15 March, referring to recent decisions in Brussels like a raft of infringement proceedings and a decision by finance ministers to freeze the payment of Structural Funds to the country.
Addressing some 250,000 people, Orban said that the EU must apply the same standards and rules to Hungary as apply to other countries, like the flexibility shown towards Spain in terms of its deficit reduction targets for 2012.
Hungary is subject to a series of infringement proceedings launched by the European Commission as a result of the new Hungarian constitution. Two reasoned opinions have been sent to the country about reforms to the appointment of judges and the data protection authority. A letter has also been sent on concerns about the independence of the Hungarian central bank, which need to be addressed in order for talks to proceed on the loan Budapest is requesting from the EU and the IMF. At the ECOFIN Council on Tuesday, the ministers endorsed the Commission's proposal to suspend the payment of nearly €500 million in EU Structural Funds in 2013 because Hungary is not reducing its public deficit fast enough.
Orban referred to these proceedings in his speech, saying that Hungary would not be a colony, as it had made clear during the anti-Habsburg revolution of 1848. He said that Hungarians today had the same programme and the same desire - not to be a colony. He did not mention the EU specifically, referring at the end of his speech to the global financial system. The prime minister said that Hungary would never go along with foreign diktats and would never give up its freedom and independence and therefore would also never give up its constitution, which had been 20 years in the making. Quizzed on Friday about Orban's speech and the implicit comparison of the EU with the Habsburg reign or the Soviet Union, a spokesperson for President Barroso said that people who, like Viktor Orban, compare the EU with the USSR don't know what democracy means.
Last week, Orban said the European Commission's lack of democratic legitimacy was why it sometimes took such stupid decisions. Despite the criticisms, talks are continuing with the European Commission over the central bank question and the loan Budapest wants the EU and IMF to give it. On 13 March, Orban sent a letter to Barroso asking him to identify stages that would help facilitate the talks and asking the Commission to communicate and not waste time. Orban said he was confident that the two sides would reach agreement on the question in the near future. Hungary has until 7 April to respond to the Commission's requests concerning the central bank, the age of judges and the data protection authority. (SP/transl.fl)