Orban: EU summit breakthrough in banking union

(MTI) – The two-day summit meeting of the European Union made a breakthrough regarding the banking union but saw only some promising initiatives concerning economic coordination, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in Brussels on Friday.

Commenting on the banking union, Orban said eurozone countries have set up a system that protects taxpayers from having to bear the consequences of the banks’ poor operation.

Hungary is not a eurozone member and a few more details need to be assessed in order for Hungarian parliament to decide whether the country should join the eurozone or not, he added.

“I asked the finance minister three weeks ago to prepare a bill on banking consolidation that will be similar to the EU’s banking union taking shape now but will only apply within the jurisdiction of Hungary,” Orban said. Regardless of whether Hungary joins the banking union, it will be necessary to have regulations “that protect Hungarian citizens from banks operating poorly and wanting to transfer their financial burdens to the voters.”

Regarding economic coordination, the summit decided to reschedule the next step and discuss the issue in mid-October instead of next June, Orban said.

“This move does not affect us, Hungarians, because the eurozone plans to incorporate changes and reforms in contractual form that we Hungarians have either already implemented these or we are in the middle of it right now,” he said.

“The policy that the Union applied in the past, which involved the introduction of criteria calculated with mathematical methods and expecting the member countries to fulfil them, has proven a failure,” Orban said.

“There were very few states that obliged,” he said, adding that Hungary was an exception to the rule. “When the EU said that we must reduce the deficit to below 3 percent, we did reduce it in three years, without sparing any effort and cost. As a result, we managed to get the excessive deficit procedure lifted,” Orban said.

Photo: MTI/Prime Minister’s Office- Barna Burger

Source: http://hungarymatters.hu/