PM Orbán in Slovenia: Europe in trouble, Hungary’s democracy is at least as good as Germany’s – UPDATED
Europe “is in trouble” as it has still not managed to define its new place in the global economy, the Hungarian prime minister said at an international foreign policy forum in Slovenia’s Bled on Monday.
Europe has a hard time understanding that unlike the United States and China it is not capable of “fundamentally changing the rules of the game”, Viktor Orban told the 15th annual Bled Strategic Forum.
The reason for this is that
Europe still does not have a joint military supported by science and innovation hubs
that could serve as “the engines of technological advancement”, he said.
“Our current situation and the ensuing consequences need to be clearly defined,” Orban said.
The forum in Bled, in north-western Slovenia, is a major foreign policy event bringing together the heads of state and government and foreign ministers of several countries.
The main topics on this year’s agenda are the challenges and opportunities faced by Europe in light of the novel coronavirus pandemic and Brexit.
UPDATE 1
“battle for intellectual sovereignty”,
Hungarian democracy “is at least as good as German or Italian democracy”
Solidarity leads to shared success but European countries cannot be successful together if they are not successful on their own, the Hungarian prime minister said.
The economic and political success of individual European nations is not the antithesis of shared European success but rather one of its preconditions and building blocks, Viktor Orban told. Orban said
the keys to the European Union’s future success were its capacity for a joint military, the accession of Serbia to the bloc and the creation of a competitive economy spearheaded by central Europe.
UPDATE 3
Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki said that central Europe was “under attack” because the region was rising and its competitiveness sharpening. He said that the region’s position, “so different” from the rest of Europe, did not mean that central Europe would be working against the other members, just that they had their own challenges to focus on.
Janez Jansa, the Slovenian head of government, and Aleksandar Vucic, the Serbian prime minister, criticised the EU for applying different standards to the West as opposed to the rest of the community.
Czech PM Andrej Babis said that the EU’s reactions to challenges were too slow, demonstrated by the community’s handling the novel coronavirus epidemic.
Boyko Borisov, the Bulgarian prime minister, said that the world had “failed” to address the pandemic as countries lacked solidarity or preparedness, each trying to save itself alone.
Croatia’s Andrej Plenkovic said it was crucial to find the right balance between a national and a European approach before the arrival of a second wave of the pandemic.
Giuseppe Conte, the Italian PM, said he trusted that the EU would in future get closer to its citizens and start to meet their needs rather than “continuing to occupy an elitist Utopia”.
International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva said that 170 countries in the world will be worse off at the end of the year than when they started 2020, but she welcomed joint efforts to unleash liquidity. Otherwise, she said, a large number of countries could have gone bankrupt with soaring unemployment.
The forum in Bled, in north-western Slovenia, is a major foreign policy event bringing together the heads of state and government and foreign ministers of several countries.
The main topics on this year’s agenda are the challenges and opportunities faced by Europe in light of the novel coronavirus pandemic and Brexit.
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