By: Domen Mezeg
Prime Minister Janez Janša responded to the multibillionaire and financial speculator George Soros’s meddling in the internal affairs of the EU, on social networks. Soros once again tried to lecture the European leaders, from the other side of the Atlantic, from the land of the “American dream,” saying that they should not have accepted a compromise on the European budget and the reconstruction fund, but should have instead ensured the functioning of the “rule of law.” As expected, the speculator also posted a short message on his social networks, writing that Hungary and Poland are brazenly threatening the EU’s foundational values.
“Stay away from the EU and Europe, please. Your dirty money for the so-called NGOs is the strongest generator of conflicts on the continent, destroying trust among people and in democracy. One Brexit was enough. EU needs recovery and stability. Chancellor Angela Merkel did a good job,” the Prime Minister Janez Janša responded to the inciting post by the financial speculator George Soros, who once again got involved in things that have absolutely nothing to do with him.
Soros also believes that the budget compromise, which the Union has reached with the two countries, reflects the mistaken belief that this threat can simply be wished away. In his article, titled “The Cost of Merkel’s Surrender to Hungarian and Polish Extortion,” which was published by the online media outlet Project Syndicate, the speculator once again tried to sell his “rotten” beliefs to others. His innate verbal “reflux” to the successful meeting of the European summit was bound to come since a successful, harmonious and united European Union was never his “intimate option.”
As Soros laments in his “essay,” the German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been labouring under enormous pressure to prevent the Hungarian and Polish veto of the European Union’s 2021-27 budget and the COVID-19 recovery fund. He also states that the compromise that Merkel reached with Hungary and Poland is the worst of all possible worlds. We cannot help but wonder why Soros, in his early youth, left his native Hungary in search of a better life and set out into the world. He could have tried to successfully solve this, in his own words, catastrophic situation in his native Hungary, as a politician, or later as a member of the European Parliament in Brussels.
Soros then goes on to say that the European Union is facing an existential threat, and yet the EU’s leadership dares to agree to some compromise. He believes that the Hungarian and Polish leading politics are brazenly challenging the values, on which the European Union has been built. He also says that this is just one of the risks that the EU is already facing. He understands Merkel’s “indulgence,” which he sees as a result of her fatigue, which is the consequence of the many years of service and her approaching her retirement, while the French president Emmanuel Macron is facing other problems on the French political scene. Soros also accuses Orban of widespread corruption, which would allegedly be revealed by accepting the “rule of law” conditionality.
Soros says that the deal, adopted at the summit in Brussels, is ugly
Orban’s financial benefits that come at the expense of the EU and the Hungarian nation are, Soros believes, the gears that keep the wheels of his regime turning smoothly. He also says that the adopted deal will very negatively impact the “rule of law.” Neither the European Commission nor the European Parliament, let alone the national governments that made the integrity of the regulation their main concern in the European Council, should allow themselves to be elbowed aside in this way, as the rule of law should have been the main concern of the European Council. Soros also believes that the proposed summit declaration is a case of the European Council acting beyond its authority, thus constraining the European Commission’s ability to interpret and act on the agreed-upon EU legislation.
He added that this is a dangerous precedent because it reduces the Commission’s legal independence and may very well contravene the Treaty on European Union, at least in spirit. He says that the deal is ugly and that it flouts the express wishes of the European Parliament, but because of the urgent need to use the COVID-19 recovery fund, the European Parliament may very well approve it. All he can do now is express the moral outrage that the people who believed in the EU as the protector of European and universal values must feel. He also believes that he should warn everyone that this compromise may severely dent the hard-won confidence that the Union’s institutions have gained through the creation of the recovery fund.
“The EU cannot subvert its own rules, nor change them at the political demand of some member states.”
“The community composes of different models of democracy because European nations differ from one another. Diversity is, after all, a European treasure, not a curse. We demand equality and respect for the Treaties. The EU cannot subvert its own rules, nor change them at the political demand of some member states,” the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, said in a recent press release. The Prime Minister cited Poland’s position on making the adoption of the budget and the EU reconstruction package conditional on the rule of law and touched on the response to the pandemic crisis and European solidarity.
“In this decisive moment, which calls for mutual solidarity, a spirit of division has awakened in Europe, as if the tremendous effort of the Recovery Fund was to be wiped out by what has always been our continent’s weakness: the tendency to argue and seek what divides us. The way rule of law conditionality is to be included in the resolution not only raises serious doubts in legal terms of the mechanism but also undermines the principles of trust and loyal cooperation between member states and Union institutions,” Morawiecki adds. He then goes on to say that the current regulation on the protection of budgetary interests of the EU is secondary to the Treaty on European Union. “And so, it cannot circumvent, replace or modify the rules set forth in that Treaty. The rule of law conditionality mechanism in the Regulation is a circumvention, in a way it “overwrites” the law over the Treaty, and more specifically, Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union.”
“Veto is a way to protect the compromise and a barrier against the imposition of will by those who are stronger at the given moment.”
“After all, it is not that difficult to imagine a political power in the EU not being a fan of a constitutional or economic reform introduced in a specific member state. It will suffice to claim in the media and in the EU Parliament how this reform violates the rule of law and to open the path to cut the funds. Is this really what we want? To enable such arbitrariness? Create such centrifugal forces that this regulation would cause?” Morawiecki asks, concerned, and then goes on to say that such a solution gives unprecedented opportunities to exert political pressure on the course of affairs in the domestic politics of the member states. “To emphasize: domestic politics. Today, this arbitrary, politically motivated mechanism is targeted against Poland, but how can we be sure that it will not be targeted against another member state unwilling to conform to the political will of Brussels institutions?”
Disapproval of the state of affairs, i.e., veto, does not weaken the EU. Veto is a mechanism embedded in the reality of the EU structures, consistent with the spirit of the Community and its democratic nature. It is a safety valve necessary for the Union to exist at all. “It is a way to protect the compromise and a barrier against the imposition of will by those who are stronger at the given moment. It is a confirmation of the fact that the vote of every member state carries equal weight. Charles de Gaulle once said that “a man sacrifices the future to the present simply by being unable to say ‘no’”. Poland feels responsible for the future of Europe. Thus our “no” for the mechanism proposed today is at the same time a “yes” to a Europe truly united in diversity, free, equal and solidary.”