“We expect the rotating French presidency of the (European) Council to stop applying double standards and political blackmail,” Tamás Deutsch, ruling Fidesz’s EP group leader, said on the sidelines of the European Parliament’s plenary on Wednesday, dedicated to the French presidency’s programme.
Deutsch insisted that those tools were “dishonest, disrespectful and illegitimate means that could seriously undermine European values”.
Deutsch said that the French programme contained both “encouraging and worrying components” in terms of the EU’s future and Hungary’s national interests, but warned that “the French presidency should not make the mistake of considering all issues to be of political or ideological nature”. For example, he said that “coronavirus vaccines were not judged on basis of their medical efficacy in the EU”.
“There was a months-long crusade under the silliest ideologies against the Chinese and Russian vaccines, preventing European citizens from getting vaccinated in time,”
he said.
Deutsch slammed French President Emmanuel Macron, the proponent of the programme, for “vehemently attacking earlier member states that strived to lawfully protect their borders against illegal migrants” adding that “now he stresses the importance of protecting external borders”.
The French approach, under which
“national sovereignty should be replaced by a European one”
is “tragic and unacceptable’, Deutsch said. He added, however, that ensuring “an external sovereignty based on strong sovereignty of member states” is crucial in terms of the community’s security and energy policy.
On the subject of energy, Deutsch said that the climate protection goals could not be achieved without nuclear energy.
“Sustainable and green energy is a purely technology issue rather than that of ideology,”
he said.
Concerning the French programme’s economic components Deutsch said that Hungary was in full support of promoting digitalisation, building a strong European investment policy and increasing the EU’s economic weight “as long as actual solutions are provided”.
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Source: MTI
