The Lisbon Treaty doesn't outline an official process for removing a member state from the EU, but there are various ways to stop European funds from flowing into Hungary. Hit them where it hurts the most and keep this corrupt regime out of Europe.
That's already happening as Western taxpayers understandably don't want to subsidize Orbán's corruption. But it seems to have the opposite effect of pulling Hungary back to the EU's side.
That's up to the Hungarians. The EU can't really force any member state to do anything and it definitely won't "save them from themselves".
I agree, and even if it could I don't think it should.
But there also should be some kind of mechanism to deal with members whose interests no longer align with the rest of the EU.
Not necessarily kicking them out or punishing them because they are out of line, but cutting funds seams reasonable. We get that money for specific reasons, and if they are not spent to meet those goals they should no longer be handed out.
That's already happening in the billions (a lot of it from the Corona help payments) but they are still here. Hungary continues to work against EU policies and interests and isn't even a proper democracy anymore, we need a way to kick them out and keep it that way at least till the facist shit Orban is no more!
Hungarian leadership seems a little touchy lately. Could it have to do with recent power structure changes in Poland?
We'll see!
The only thing that Orban usually touches is Putin's dick.
I really do hope that the recent changes will mean a brighter future for the EU.
Eh, Slovakia is even closer to him and the new just elected government is going to be very much Orban and Putin friendly. If he looses friend in Poland, he got replacementc
And in the next Czech elections, his friend Babiš is going to win, so they'll at least have 3 of the Visegrad 4.
God I hope not. That'd be fucking disaster.
Well, the current government sadly has exactly one good quality: they're not Babiš. Which was enough in the last elections, but it's not gonna be enough in the next ones. Unless Babiš dies in the next two years (which is possible, he's old and all the politics must be stressful for him as well), he's gonna win.
I'm pretty sure, Victor Orban was there only to arrest Vladimir Putin in the name of the free world. /s
As things stand, the EU doesn't have a unified foreign policy.
I think that doing so would provide some benefits. The US explicitly prohibits state governments, via the Logan Act, from undercutting the federal government in areas where the federal government is negotiating with foreign powers.
I think that there are good arguments that having a unified foreign policy is something that one would want to do prior to unifying a military in the EU.
But it is true that, as things stand, the EU doesn't have a unified foreign policy. And one aspect of that is that each individual member state has the right to negotiate independently with foreign powers. The EU, in its present form, doesn't have the right to require Orban to not talk to Putin. And getting to an environment where it has that legitimate authority requires EU member states to sign off on such a change, which they have not done.
I'll also add that there are definitely people out there who disagree with me. I think that the EU should politically-integrate further, but there are definitely people who have a different vision, want the EU to stay a looser-knit organization. From their standpoint, it would be undesirable for Brussels to ever have the ability to control member state foreign relations.
Couldn't put it better than you did. It's a long shot before EU members agree on a unified foreign policy. I guess the 6 founders should be leading that effort. In this particular case, though, Orban decides unilaterally to align himself with a regime which is actively fighting EU core values, thus endangering the very existence of the Union. I think there should be a mechanism, akin to the one used when a government undermines the rule of law internally, to make it painful when a ruler acts like Orban on foreign policy matters.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In a written statement to the Guardian on Thursday, Pavel, a former Nato general, said: “As it has been repeatedly shown, Putin does not meet European leaders with the aim of achieving peace in Ukraine.
“Hungary’s leader chooses to stand with a man whose forces are responsible for crimes against humanity in Ukraine, and alone among our allies,” he wrote on social media.
Orbán was in Beijing for an international forum on the Chinese president, Xi Jinping’s, belt and road infrastructure initiative.
A spokesperson for the Hungarian government, Zoltán Kovács, hit back at critics: “The stance of Hungary regarding Russia and the war in Ukraine has been clear from the get-go.
We always advocated for open and transparent dialogue with the parties involved to assist in finding a peaceful solution to this bloody conflict.
“I find a certain amusement in how these politicians flock to criticise the Hungarian government and our openly declared interest in maintaining a diplomatic relationship with Russia, while their moral superiority is a facade at best,” he added.
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