According to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Hungary scored a victory at the pre-EU summit talks: the President of the European Commission announced that the issue of the frozen Russian assets would not be on the agenda.
On Wednesday in Brussels, the Prime Minister said the background talks have led to a satisfactory result. At the same time, Mr Orbán rejected the idea of collective EU borrowing which emerged to replace the Russian assets.
He said Hungary will not assume responsibility for a loan which would be used to support Ukraine, and in his view, the European Union itself must not set out on this path. The Prime Minister stressed that the government would do everything it could to prevent the adoption of this proposal, and was seeking allies in this endeavour.
According to the EU rules, collective borrowing continues to require unanimity. At the same time, “the problem is that the law doesn’t count here anymore,” the Prime Minister stated. He said “we have moved towards a Soviet-type phase of evolution, or we’re more in a Yugoslav-type phase of development when we still pretend that there is democracy, but in actual fact, it’s long since gone, and everyone knows that this is the case.”
Mr Orbán recalled that Brussels had changed the rules related to the right to decide on the freezing of Russian assets; a decision which was previously required to be adopted collectively and unanimously with six-monthly regularity. In his words, “this is a completely evident justizmord, a violation of the law.” He added that “they pulled a passage out of the Treaties which is completely inadequate, clearly irrelevant to this case.”
According to the Prime Minister, with this act, “Brussels broke the basic principle of loyal cooperation with Hungary” which is a grave violation and “will have consequences.” He stressed that “we will not get the short end of the stick here.”
