Hungarian Foreign Minister criticises EU leadership, blames Von der Leyen for economic decline

The “failed” economic policy of the past years should move the European Union to place the management of economic policy into the hands of member states again, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said in Warsaw on Tuesday.

Szijjártó said after an informal meeting of EU trade ministers that participants agreed that the EU was facing serious economic challenges and that its competitiveness had dwindled in the past years. At the same time, there were diverging views as to the causes and possible solutions to the situation, Szijjártó said, according to a ministry statement.

“We think that the abysmal performance of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has led to the EU facing the new world economic era from the worst position among the largest players of the world economy,” Szijjártó said.

Ten years ago, 36 of the 100 largest companies of the world were European, Szijjártó said. He said that number has fallen to 14 by now, none of which are in the top 10 of the list. He added that the EU’s share of the world economic performance fell to 17 percent from 22 percent in the past decade.

As we wrote a few weeks earlier, in 2023, Hungary’s GDP per capita reached 77% of the EU average, ranking 22nd, as the country shows both progress and challenges in economic growth. Despite outperforming some EU nations, Hungary lags behind Romania and faces high budget deficits. Details HERE.

He slammed the EC for “failing to conclude a single investment protection agreement in the past years”. “Free trade agreements are progressing at a glacial pace because the Brussels body is mixing issues into the process that have no bearing on economic cooperation, such as LGBT rights.”

The earlier economic growth model based on a combination of modern western technologies and cheap eastern raw materials “is now a thing of the past, but nothing has replaced it”. “European companies must pay four or five times more than their US and Chinese competitors for gas, and 2-3 times more for electricity,” he added.

The politicization and ideologization of economic issues was a “grave error,” as it isolated the EU from the two most prominent players of the world economy, the US and China, he said.

Regarding the possibility that the US might slap tariffs on products from the EU, Szijjártó said: “Maybe European politicians shouldn’t have leveled base accusations and criticisms at the new president of the United States … On the other hand, the US started taking harmful measures for Europe under the tenure of Joe Biden, not Donald Trump.”

He said that while the US took protectionist measures during the coronavirus pandemic, Brussels had failed to mirror those steps.

“Due to the failures and ineptitude of the EC in the past 5 years, the US finds it easy to introduce tariffs against the EU.”

Thanks to its economic neutrality policy, Hungary is in a good position, as the future lies in an East-West cooperation based on common sense, Szijjártó said.

“Unless Europe wants to lose the global economic competition for good, economic policy must be placed into the hands of member states,” he said. “It’s time Brussels stopped stripping member states of their competencies, and it’s time to realise that the economy can be managed much better at a member state level.”

“In the coming period, member states must be given more leeway to conclude investment protection agreements. We have negotiated 12 in the past 5 years, while the EU has negotiated zero. Brussels must step back from the negotiations on investment support, too,” Szijjártó said. “Brussels shouldn’t be the one to decide whether we can fund an investment from national coffers.”

“In the recent period, member states have assessed economic challenges better than Brussels, as shown by Hungary’s success,” Szijjártó said.

As we wrote today, not the Orbán cabinet, but the EU supports the Hungarian wage rise for teachers, details HERE.