Hungarian minister Nagy: EU must be saved before it dies

Hungary believes in boosting competence, and sees this as the European Union’s opportunity to rise, but the resources necessary for a turnaround are lacking at the level of the EU, National Economy Minister Márton Nagy said at a conference evaluating Hungary’s EU presidency in Budapest on Monday.

Nagy said the EU “must be saved before it dies,” as its economy cannot compete with the United States and China under the current circumstance.

It is estimated that EUR 700bn-800bn are missing for investments for the digital and green transition at the EU level, and there will not be enough money as long as financing is limited by fiscal discipline, he said. There is no need for “fiscal alcoholism,” but the EU should reform its financing rules as the initial costs of the digital and green transition are high, and in order to achieve structural transformation, “the money taps must be opened”, channeling new funding to the right places. Europe must therefore decide whether it considers competitiveness or deficit targets to be more important, he said.

Instead of investments, the EU was financing the war in Ukraine while the United States and China were continuously investing into industries with high added value, Nagy said. He said the EU was already lagging behind in artificial intelligence, it may have a future in space industry, but the automotive industry could be the real breakthrough point. However, there is not a single community directive addressing e-mobility and the electric vehicle market has also stalled in Europe, Nagy said.

The minister said the next six-to-eight weeks could bring important changes as the change of the US president and the German election could also be of decisive importance from Hungary’s perspective.

Demján Sándor Programme to boost investments due to start on January 23

More than 6,500 entrepreneurs have registered for the Demján Sándor Programme for scaling up SMEs in the past five weeks, which shows that enterprises do have plans to launch investments and purchase new assets and the government wants to support them, state secretary for SME development and technology Richárd Szabados said on Facebook on Monday.

The funding documents are expected to be issued in the spring, Szabados said.

6 Comments

  1. The EU must be disbanded. The EU should be reformed only to be an economic block. It is time to end the utterly stupid policy initiatives, each nation has different needs.

  2. If the EU was changed into “an economic block” which I take to mean merely a free trade organization there would be no development funds for Hungary and other less advanced countries. Fidesz tragically would be completely deprived of the ability to embezzel funds sent to Hungary for development. Any time you have taxation of a group of member states from which funds are disbursed there are going to be conditions with a common set of values and goals. Hungary of course is always free to leave if it doesn’t like it but it chooses to stay so the EU must be beneficial to Hungary.

  3. The E.U. cannot be saved. It is a fabricated artifice that went way beyond its scope extremely quickly and ended up working against its people. It is now megalomaniacal, authoritarian, endlessly corrupt bully rather than a freewheeling vehicle of freedom, prosperity, and progress of the European peoples. but even without having become that, such creations never last long.

    If Czechoslovakia couldn’t make, the E.U. has zero chance.

    Good riddance once it all does implode!

    (And yes, they can take their measly 397 euros per capita they “give” us annually with them. Gladly!)

  4. @michaelsteiner – if one would remove the “measly” EUR 397 per capita from our GDP from the day we joined … Where do you think we would be, as a nation? In summary, it is more than 3.5 percent of our GDP.

    So – just take the data below and deduct 3.5 from each of the annual GDP “growth” results:

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/1268259/hungary-gdp-growth-rate/ – “only EUR 397”, even uncompounded, is significant! Data and facts for you.

    This separate from being part of the European single market, without which we would not be able to attract that foreign investment our Politicians love to highlight (yes – foreign multinationals are here for a reason and it is not to supply Hungary) or talent to succeed.

    Lastly – with all due respect. Without the clout and knowhow of the EU, what do you think Hungary could negotiate in the international trade arena?

    https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/eu-trade-relationships-country-and-region/negotiations-and-agreements_en

    The United Kingdom has been trying it alone… One of those “Benefits of Brexit!”

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-uks-trade-agreements

    “.. the majority of these are simply “rollovers” – meaning they copied the terms of deals the UK previously had when it was an EU member, rather than creating new trading arrangements.”

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47213842

    Special mention regarding the New Zealand and Australia deals … Which they negotiated themselves … Not uncontroversial (or call it “bite you in the /ss, medium to long term” – but as a politician, you do want to show at least something to the base, right?)

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