Jean Asselborn has called for the Hungary of Viktor Orban to be excluded or at least suspended from the European Union for breaching the EU’s fundamental democratic values. The Luxembourg foreign minister was speaking in an interview published by German daily Die Welt on Tuesday 13 September, only three days before the 27 member states are due to meet in Bratislava, on 16 September, to discuss the future of the EU without the United Kingdom.
“It is because of people like Orban that the EU projects the image of a Union that dares argue outside its borders for values that it can no longer uphold inside” the bloc, said Asselborn. “Anyone, like Hungary, who builds fences against war refugees or breaches press freedom and the independence of the justice system should be temporarily, or even forever, excluded from the EU” he added. “This is”, in his view, “the only way to preserve the integrity and values of the European Union” and he made the point that the EU “cannot tolerate such behaviour”.
When asked about the comments, the European Commission preferred to remain silent. Czech Prime Minister Tomas Prouza, reacting on Facebook, suggested that, in the run-up to the Bratislava meeting, “we need to maintain our rational approach, our unity and to concentrate on common challenges”. Expelling a member state is “the most absurd and least relevant” idea he has heard ahead of the Bratislava summit, he went on to say.
In June of this year, all European leaders agreed to continue European cooperation with 27 members, the Czech prime minister said. “We won’t create Unions within the Union or exclude anyone. Europe must cooperate and remain coherent.”
The European Commission opened proceedings against Hungary in 2011 and 2012, arguing that some of the laws passed by the Orban government ran counter to European principles. It was, however, against Poland that the Commission implemented its new rule-of-law monitoring procedure in 2016. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)