The Hungarian prime minister made four proposals in connection with the EU's future at the meeting of V4 leaders and the German chancellor in Warsaw on Friday.
Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union is not the cause of Europe’s present situation, but rather a consequence of it, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in Warsaw, when meeting his Visegrad counterparts and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He also said that the EU has completely lost its ability to adapt. Mr. Orbán said that the EU is facing two simultaneous challenges. The first is that in every respect it has lost its ability to adapt. The EU has failed to draw the right conclusions from the global financial and economic crisis, and it has failed to respond to migration and terrorism, he said. The second challenge facing the EU is that it is not observing its own current rules on border protection, the Schengen area, fiscal discipline and the operation of financial institutions.
Mr. Orbán also outlined a set of proposals in connection with the future of the European Union's security policy, economic policy, institutional system, and common policies. The PM said that security should be made a priority within the bloc, and called for the setting up of a joint European army. Institutions such as the European Council and the European Commission should go back to fulfilling their “original roles”. The EU should preserve its “tried and tested” policies, such as cohesion and agricultural policies, but migration and social issues should not be managed at the EU level. He also suggested that the bloc should defend an economic policy aimed at safeguarding fiscal discipline, structural reforms and economic stability.
