Only democrats should sit on the EU Council, writes the German member of the Green Party to Council President Michel. In turn, he is confident about an imminent oil embargo against Russia, although Hungary still openly rejects this.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán should not attend the EU summit at the beginning of next week, according to the will of the EU parliamentarian Daniel Freund. In a letter to EU Council President Charles Michel sent on Wednesday, Freund justified his demand by saying that democracy had to be restored in Hungary first. “Only democrats are allowed to sit on the European Council,” said Freund.
The party friend of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock relied on a provision in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. Accordingly, the heads of state or government in the European Council must be “democratically accountable to their national parliament or to their citizens”. Orbán However, I have been dismantling democracy in Hungary for years and, with the state of emergency that has now been declared, I am also bypassing the last remnants of parliamentary control. “When it comes to the most central decisions for security in Europe, no autocrat should sit at the table,” explained Freund.
Hungary declares a state of emergency
Orbán had announced on Tuesday that he would impose a state of emergency in his country from this Wednesday because of the war in neighboring Ukraine. This allows him to repeal existing laws and take coercive measures by decree.
The Hungarian prime minister is also resisting the emerging consensus among the EU states to decide on an embargo on oil supplies from Russia. To compensate, Budapest is demanding billions in subsidies. However, observers also see the resistance as politically motivated Orbán but as pro-Russian. He won the parliamentary elections in April mainly by promising to keep his country out of the Ukraine war.
Michel still optimistic about the oil embargo
Council President Michel was optimistic about an agreement on the oil embargo. Michel said on a visit to the Swedish capital Stockholm on Wednesday that he was “confident” that there would be an agreement on the issue of sanctions against Russia by the time of the EU summit.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, on the other hand, reiterated Budapest’s negative stance. No embargo that would endanger Hungary’s energy security would be approved, he said on Wednesday, according to the MTI news agency. “First a solution has to be found, only then can we talk about sanctions,” he emphasized. It is “not real” that the EU Commission will be able to submit an acceptable proposal this week. That is why the Hungarian government had proposed not to put this question on the summit’s agenda in the first place.
Germany dampened hopes of a quick agreement. At the special EU summit, the conclusion of the sixth package of sanctions against Russia is not on the agenda, according to German government circles on Wednesday. But one hopes for a speedy conclusion, it said on Wednesday in the circles in Berlin. A decision on EU candidate status for Ukraine will also not be made, it said. The EU Commission must first submit a recommendation.
(APA/dpa/Reuters)