Hungary’s commissioner nominee Olivér Várhelyi failed, Fidesz suspects leftist pact behind
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At his hearing in front of the expert committees of the European Parliament, Olivér Várhelyi said that if his candidacy for Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare was supported, he wanted to work towards improving citizens’ health by further building the European Health-care Union, “because cross-border crises like the coronavirus pandemic require joint solutions.”
Olivér Várhelyi failed his first hearing, had to answer in writing
Várhelyi, who has been EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement for the past five years, told the hearing that innovation in health care was a step towards a “strong, competitive and healthy Europe”. He said prevention through a “comprehensive approach and investment” would be a priority. He would also work to keep clinical research in Europe and strengthen it, especially in the diseases causing the most deaths in the bloc such as cancer and heart and circulatory diseases. By keeping research in Europe and by improving access to medical equipment, the EU’s autonomy would grow and its health-care industry would remain competitive, he said.
“I would like to ensure that treatments and medicine will always be at European citizens’ disposal whenever and wherever they need it.” Meanwhile, Várhelyi said he would also keep the EU’s food safety and animal health regulations the strictest in Europe, which is also a way to maintain farmers’ competitiveness.
According to Politico, “lawmakers refused to approve Várhelyi after his oral hearing on Wednesday — the only Commissioner so far not to be greenlit at this stage.” He received a lot of questions her had to answer in writing. HERE you can read them with the replies.
He has until 12 November to convince the committees of the European Parliament.
Patriots for Europe support Várhelyi
The MEP delegation of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrats (KDNP) and their party family, the Patriots for Europe, are standing behind Hungarian commissioner candidate Olivér Várhelyi, Fidesz MEP Tamás Deutsch said on Facebook on Wednesday, ahead of Várhelyi’s hearing in the European Parliament.
Várhelyi proved his experience, professional knowledge and preparedness in his career so far, he said.
At the same time, “there is no doubt that professional knowledge will mean nothing to the EP’s leftist majority,” he said. “Even though the hearing is supposed to assess professional knowledge, we can expect the well-known ideological and political attacks.” Deutsch said there had been reports that “the Tisza delegation, the European People’s Party and its leader, Manfred Weber …
have made a pact with the other leftist groups to mandate a second hearing for Várhelyi, no matter what.”
Uh. Our Politicians thrive on “political circus” (or theatre) – so they should be well versed in how this works!
Some context:
https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article/mep-and-former-commissioner-for-health-and-food-safety
And, no, Hungary did not conceive the framework (spoilers – oh no not the EU, again!). Mr. Várhelyi would have been tasked to deliver on One Health:
https://health.ec.europa.eu/one-health/overview_en
Quick reminder to people re the COVID handling in Hungary… We ended up in an indefinite State of Emergency, and, instead of going with the rest of the EU, our Politicians initially went with their Russian and Chinese friends instead. The European Commission’s Vaccine Passport plan excluded the Sputnik and Sinopharm products because they were not “EU authorized vaccines”. Well. And the quality of those vaccines also led to excess deaths. So perhaps the EU´s stubbornness (or focus on data and facts) was indeed correct?
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/hungary – set Hungary versus the EU average and weep.
“Sovereignty!” for you. And now touting an EU approach? How interesting.