Parliamentary Speaker: EP elections could launch new phase in life of EU
Next year’s European parliamentary elections could bring about the start of a new phase in the life of the European Union, Parliamentary Speaker László Kövér said in an interview to Monday’s edition of the daily Magyar Idok.
Kövér told the paper that next May’s elections would not only change the composition of the European Parliament but also that of the European Commission.
The new phase the EU could then embark on will be one where the questions of the resettlement of migrants and the establishment of a united states of Europe are no longer on the agenda, he said.
Kövér added, however, that the EP elections would not mean the end of the fight for “real European values”.
The speaker said the Hungarian government believes the EU to be “the best way for Hungary to enforce its interests, but right now the EU is tearing itself apart”. He said those who see themselves as “trustees” of the EU were the ones “steering the continent into a disaster” in part with their immigration policies, and in part by “breaching written regulations” and “pushing the EU in the direction of federalism”.
Kövér said politicians like French President Emmanuel Macron, liberal EP group leader Guy Verhofstadt and European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans, “not to mention certain European People’s Party politicians”, were the “EU’s gravediggers”.
He said central Europe in a broader sense, meaning Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, northern Italy, the eastern part of Germany and Bavaria were the continent’s main hope for survival.
Either western Europe can draw strength from this and turn back on “the wrongful path it started down on” or it will continue to try to integrate the tens of millions of people it has taken in and still wants to take in who “have no desire whatsoever to conform to the culture of their new home”, Kövér said.
Kövér said the meaning of history was the survival of the nation and culture “that makes our homeland our home”.
“This is what 1956 is about for us as well,” the speaker added.
On the topic of culture wars, he said that from a Christian perspective, “a culture war has been ongoing since the creation of the world”. Kövér said this was embodied in the struggles between good and evil, normal and abnormal, moral and amoral and order and chaos.
“What we call a culture war is the fight for people’s soul,” he said. “It’s about how we can convey our message to people, how we can convince those who vote us into government to support the values . we represent.”
Featured image: www.facebook.com/EuropeanParliament
Source: MTI
In Brussels, the heads of state and government of the EU met again for a summit meeting. Always the same rituals and speeches could not hide the fact that it is done with the EU in its current form. Even more integration will not take place. Of course the EU still exists, its organs work as always reliable and bureaucratic. And they continue to respect the Member States with absurd and unnecessary regulations. Newest example: the newest trains for the S-Bahn in Berlin, which will be deployed from 2021, receive a new and particularly annoying signal when the doors close due to an EU directive. Annoyances such as these cannot hide the fact that the EU has not been functioning for at least 3 years. The Heads of State and Government, who met on 23.10.2018 for a new summit in Brussels, are no longer on the same line in important issues. Instead of real compromises, it has only been for a few years to appear as false solutions to avoid losing face. In more and more states the so-called populist movements become more important, which reject even more integration. The current conflict between the European Commission and the Italian government could reveal the crisis of the EU and ask questions about the existence of the euro. During the eurocrisis from 2010 onwards, Germany succeeded in bringing the EU to austerity policy on the German road and in 2015 brutally forced the Greek government into submission. This will not work in Italy. Italy is too big, its debts are also a problem for the EU and the banks. And the Italian government is – unlike the Greek – determined and prepared to step out of the euro in extreme necessity. What consequences such a move would have for the Union and its common currency is incalculable. The currency union was a faulty construction from the beginning. The euro has cost the countries of the south enormous growth and prosperity while it has created a huge export boom for the German economy. The imbalances have not become smaller but have become bigger so that an end with fear instead of an endless horror will become more and more likely. The second major theme that clearly reveals the failure of European integration is the refugee issue. After Sauer first declared the Dublin scheme outdated, then declared it valid again, the theme created a constant argument. The opinions and interests in this issue are as contradictory in the EU as they can be. The third theme arose in a sense as a side effect of the sewcond: the Brexit. Sauer’s refugee policy played a decisive role in the referendum of the British, stirring up the migration-skeptic mood that was present anyway. The EU is committed to making the road to the Brexit as difficult as possible for the United Kingdom, if only to deter possible after pressing. While the Brexit for the British, unlike often read, could well be a success. The fourth problem topic is also related to Sauer’s refugee policy. She contributed to the fact that the Eastern Europeans learned to say ‘No’ and that there was a gap between Western and Eastern Europe that cannot be closed anymore. There is no solution for any of the problem areas that are only briefly cropped here. Even if the EU is allowed to vegetate for decades in its current state, a partial or complete disintegration from the current view is more likely than a further integration. It would also be possible to envisage a new invention of the EU in its former form, as a union with a common economic space. The keyrole in all the problems of the European Union outlined above was Germany. With its austerity dictate, the German government has made a decisive contribution to the loss of wealth in the south of the continent. She also helped to ensure that resentments between the peoples came to life, which they thought had long ago been overcome. Germany has exercised an economic and partly political hegemony over EU-Europe in the recent years. The exercise of political hegemony was rather unwilling and therefore awkward that it could not be of long duration. When Sauer talks about ‘European solutions’, the rest of Europe understands very well that she wants the introduction of German ideas at European level. And exactly that does not work anymore. Sauer will probably, in complete opposition to her Europe-friendly rhetoric, go into the history of the bomb that has been put under the European Union and has ignited the fuse, with its refugee policy as one of the greatest political own goals of our time. For citizens, an end of the EU in its current form will not bad news. Perhaps there is even hope for the S-Bahn in Berlin.
All alarm bells went off by the financial controllers of the European Union. The EASO, the EU asylum agency, shows a huge mess of fraud, staff shortages and a lack of control and sense of responsibility. Terms such as a critical staffing situation and exponentially deteriorated are spread across the entire European Court of Auditors’ report on the EU asylum agency’s European Asylum Support Office (EASO). For example, there is too little staff to fill vacancies in administration. It is therefore not possible to prepare and process sufficient vacancies. In 2015 they still had a budget of € 15.5 million, compared to € 70 million in 2017. With a bonus of € 54.5 million, a club of about only 200 employees cannot get things right. The internal control was an outright gang as a result of which more than 10% of the budget, approx. € 7.7 million, due to incorrect payments and poorly justified tenders fell into the pockets of the employees or ended up wrong.
Two more nice facts are:
1. A HR director spoke about the absence of the rule of law in this agency and that delusions prevail among those responsible for this situation. He summarized this under the heading of culture of irresponsibility within EASO.
2. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) will come to Amsterdam in March 2019 because of Brexit. € 18.6 million will be allocated for this, which is not a problem in itself, but the EMA will have to cancel its current lease, which runs until 2039. There is no exit clause, so there is a good chance that we will have to pay € 465 million to get out of the contract! Up to now, 40 out of 41 agencies appear to be in good shape, or 39 if the EMA fails with their lease. The European Banking Authority also moves from London to Paris (€ 11.2 million in costs), but that remains to be seen. All in all, a lot of money is thrown back and no one is held accountable, next time it will all be better!
Mrs. Szargentini: Why don’t you check your own organization?