EP Elections – Orban: EU Must Renew Itself

(MTI) – Europe cannot stay the way it is today, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in an interview on Friday.

Europe’s competitiveness has weakened over the past few years and is at a disadvantage compared to power centres as the Unites States and Asia, Orban said in an interview broadcast by Balmazujvaros TV in east Hungary.

The European Union, too, must be renewed, he said.

The prime minister noted unemployment as a major problem in several EU member states, adding that the EU knows it has to change. Orban said he hadn’t asked the EU to help solve Hungary’s unemployment problems but he “would be perfectly happy were Hungary left to solve its own problems.”

“The problem is that when Hungary came forward with the bank levy, taxes on multinational companies and the equal sharing of the public burden; and when it transformed its pension system and introduced the fostered work scheme, Brussels rose its eyebrows and opposed these measures.”

The prime minister said there would be “major improvements on the previous situation” if Hungary were allowed to use financial resources according to its own interests while following rules that fit the requirements of Hungarians.

With its new two-thirds majority the Hungarian government is strong enough to secure “at least a position of neutral goodwill in Brussels.” Orban said the government’s scheme to cut household utility bills should be copied in Europe.

Photo: MTI – Zsolt Czegledi

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters