Orbán wrote about his EU plan to Financial Times

In an article published in the Financial Times on Tuesday on the occasion of Hungary’s assuming the European Union’s rotating presidency, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán elaborated on the topic of restoring the EU’s competitiveness.

He noted that Hungary was now serving its second EU presidency 13 years after its first one.

“During my time as prime minister, a role I held between our two presidencies, I have had a unique vantage point from which to witness the erosion of Europe’s competitiveness,” Orbán said. He said he had been “fortunate enough to know the great architects of the European integration of the 1990s,” making special mention of Helmut Kohl.

Quoting the former German chancellor, Orbán said that Kohl once remarked: “We all need Europe in order to remain competitive on the world markets,” adding that “his words have never been as relevant as they are today”. “The loss of the EU’s competitiveness has been a growing tendency in recent decades,” the prime minister said. “This decline can be attributed primarily to misguided Brussels decisions that go against the realities of the world economy.”