Hungarian economy minister: Next EU budget should be negotiated with new commission – Interview

Finance Minister Mihály Varga, in an interview to news portal Origo on Saturday, said it may not be worthwhile to negotiate the next European Union budget with the incumbent European Commission, arguing that a new commission will take office after next year’s European parliamentary elections, whose president will likely be someone other than Jean-Claude Juncker.

The next commission will have to be granted the right to prepare the budget that will be in effect during its own term, Varga said.

The minister called the current situation around the EU budget a “strange” one, arguing that the incumbent commission was trying to “force through” a budget that it will not even have the power to implement.

“I think it’s very likely that the new budget will be prepared by the next European Commission,” Varga said.

The minister said the new budget should be drawn up on the basis of the EU’s “old” fundamental values. Economic development should be targeted at areas that are still behind, he argued.

“There’s a kind of quiet, internal war going on,” he said.

“This is what’s really behind the debates around the directive on posted worker rules and the pillar of social rights, and the draft budget for the next funding period falls into this line as well. The draft would take [funds] away from central and eastern Europe and divert them to the Mediterranean countries,” Varga added.