PM Orbán in Slovenia: Europe in trouble, Hungary’s democracy is at least as good as Germany’s – UPDATED

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.