Saturday, September 23, 2023 (MB)
On Tuesday, an independent group of experts presented a plan to the European Commission on how governments that disagree with the leadership in Brussels can be eliminated from interfering in EU decisions and prevent countries like Hungary from exercising veto rights. The independent experts were commissioned by the French and German governments to develop the plan.
The “multi-speed Europe” would be divided into first-, second-, and third-class member states, and the category that still ran would be called the attractive European Political Community – following the idea of French President Macron.
The members belonging to the inner circle of the EU, resting on the German-French axis, would form the core of the Union and would enjoy all the rights of policy-making, while the others could orbit Jupiter like moons. They would have no influence on the decision-making of the big ones, but at the same time they would have to implement the decisions that concern them as well. If they did not, they would be deprived of more and more rights, including the money due to them, which they already have to do without.
Critics of the Union’s policy would apparently be classified as A, B, C, etc. category, based on compliance with the criteria of the rule of law, but the real reason is quite different: they want to keep them under control in building their relations with Russia and China.
The leadership in Brussels, in close alliance with the United States, questions the right of its member states to build relations with non-EU countries, which openly proclaim the need to create a multipolar world order instead of the current order based on Western hegemony, and are also inclined to negotiate with Russia in order to make Ukraine neutral.
Since the loss of Ukraine would speed up the process of the creation of a multipolar world order and, as NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg put it, would also mean the defeat of NATO, the West considers preventing the reformation of the world order to be vital from the point of view of its power and social structure, and for this the “strategic defeat” of Russia is essential. He considers it a betrayal of the common system if someone does not trust the success of the enterprise, and moreover, builds good relations with the East – as the Hungarian government does.
The main error of the “Independent experts” plan is that it sees the possibility of preserving the social system in the maintenance of a world of confrontation, while more and more people also in the West are proposing a political compromise with Russia in order to pay a price as little as possible for preserving the existing order.
The leadership of the Union, committed to Atlanticism, and the French-German axis consider the system question to be more important than the diverse, multifaceted national interests of the member states, and demand from them that countries interested in building relations with the East make sacrifices in defense of the global capitalism shared with the USA. Be aware that the overthrow of American hegemony could undermine the power system of all of them.
The case of those who cling to the old order to the point of breaking their nails recalls the fate of the ancient Roman Empire, which could not imagine its existence without slavery.
The West, including the European Union, has no plan for cooperation with the East. If he has it hides it pretty well.
Therefore, countries with dual ties, such as Hungary, which conducts 80 percent of its trade with the EU, but receives 80 percent of its energy from Russia, would have no other choice but to pull down the Iron Curtain in front of the East and meet the expectations of the West, if they want to avoid being expelled from the EU, at least from its inner circle.
While the Hungarian socialist-liberal opposition would be ready to meet Brussels’ expectations without further ado, Viktor Orbán’s government does not want to give up the relationship with the East, which is considered to be in the national interest of country’s development. “We hope that one day we will be able to return to civilized East-West cooperation, as this is in our interest,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told TASS on Friday.
In his meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister in New York on Friday, he asked Lavrov to continue to ensure Hungary’s energy supply, which Lavrov promised. As for Paks, Rosatom head Alexei Likhachev stated: “The implementation of the Paks II Nuclear Power Plant will continue under any scenario.”
Brussels is currently preparing the 12th package of sanctions against Russia, including restrictions on Russian nuclear energy, liquefied gas and telecommunications services. They want to present the package that conflicts with Hungarian interests in October.
The question is whether the Hungarian government can obtain an exception to it, or whether it will be forced to veto it, which it has never done before with EU sanctions.
An even bigger question is whether it is worth sticking to the EU’s inner circle in the long term at the cost of stalling the country’s development and leading to social tensions with unpredictable consequences.
Because if it’s not worth it, then you should quickly, very quickly, look around the market to see what alternative trade sources are available to the EU. For example, with the BRICS, the Eurasian Economic Union, in the framework of the Chinese Silk Road.
We Hungarians, here in the heart of Europe, between East and West, have an interest in living on good terms with both sides, but if the West does not want this, and would even exclude us, we would have no choice but to strengthen the relationship with the East.
Endre Simó, president of the Hungarian Community for Peace
Magyar Békekör 