On Wednesday in Rome Szabolcs Takács, Minister of State for EU Affairs at the Prime Minister’s Office had consultations with officials of the Italian government responsible for affairs concerning the European Union about the attacks levelled at Budapest and Rome from Brussels, the European Commission’s proposals regarding the budget, immigration and the upcoming European parliamentary elections.
Mr Takács said the Italian and Hungarian governments agree that “it is impossible to come to an agreement with the institutions of the European Union which are about to reach the end of their mandate on any strategic issues, be that immigration or the EU budget”.
The Minister of State was received by the Italian government’s State Secretary for European Affairs Barra Caracciolo, Fabrizio Bucci, Deputy Director General for the European Union at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Pietro Benassi, EU advisor to the Italian Prime Minister.
At the meeting, the European Commission’s proposals regarding the EU budget featured as a priority issue. Mr Takács said it is a positive development that the Italian government also shares the view that the volume of grants allocated to traditional policy issues such as cohesion and agricultural policy should not be reduced as drastically as proposed by the European Commission.
“The Hungarian government takes the view that the proposals that were outlined by pro-immigration bureaucrats in Brussels with respect to Hungary would result in a completely disproportionate and unjustified reduction of EU grants”, Mr Takács stated. He observed that plans to reduce the EU funds intended for Hungary are attributable to the fact that in the past three to four years Hungary has pursued a very firm and consistent anti-immigration policy.
He added that it is not acceptable that the European Commission is using proposals regarding the budget as a political means, and “in actual fact, rather than taking into account the best interests of the people and Member States, it seeks to further its own political ambitions”. He took the view that the only explanation for this is that the European Commission is “a member of the pro-immigration political community which shamelessly attacks both the Hungarian and Italian governments simply on the score that we have a different view on immigration”.
Mr Takács informed his Italian partners that the Hungarian government parties are preparing for the campaign of the European parliamentary (EP) elections as members of the European People’s Party (EPP).
“We have a vested interest in ensuring that the EPP achieve the best possible election results so that it can resist the socialist-liberal machinations which seek to divide the EPP,” he said, stressing that they are simultaneously ready to cooperate with all political forces which share the Hungarian government’s position on the issue of immigration.
He highlighted that European politicians and political actors sponsored and supported by the Soros network play a key role in the “shameful and fierce struggle” related to immigration. Therefore, the Hungarian government believes the time has come to inform the European Commission that it is unable to accept the scenario where the European Commission is represented by politicians who are themselves prominent players of the election struggle. Above all Mr Takács referred to the First Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, who is the lead candidate of the Party of European Socialists (PES). He said the Hungarian government will ask President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker to suspend Mr Timmermans. He observed that leader of the liberals in the EP Guy Verhofstadt attacked Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conta for the same reason after his address in the EP on Tuesday.
Mr Timmermans and Mr Verhofstadt are representatives of the pro-immigration political line, and this is why they attack the Hungarian and Italian governments, Mr Takács stated.