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– Victor Orban
Thorough, honest, very personal and emotional. This is how European leaders defined the discussion of European values, sparked by Hungarian law banning homosexual information at school.
“This law is discriminatory and we will take action to oppose it,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after two days of talks in Brussels on Friday.
The commission wrote to the Hungarian government on Wednesday to describe its suspicions that it is contrary to European law, and expects a response by the end of the month before deciding how to proceed.
“The procedure is open and it all depends on how Hungary reacts,” Von der Layen said.
The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte confirmed that during the closed-door conversation he told Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán that he had to choose between withdrawing the law and applying to leave the EU, following the example of the United Kingdom.
“You cannot be a member of the EU if you do not accept and respect European values. No one has forced us to join. We all wanted to enter because we agree with these values,” said Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa.
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Sources in the meeting said that during the leaders’ conversation he told Orban that “the EU is not the Soviet Union” and that everyone is inside of their own free will, but they must play by the rules if they want to stay.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said he does not support the idea that Hungary should activate Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and leave the EU, but that preserving values is an “existential issue for Europeans”.
“We cannot say that geopolitically we should continue to expand Europe (…) but as soon as a problem arises, we should talk about expelling members,” he said.
The EU does not have the power to exclude countries, they can only do so of their own free will, by invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which was used by the United Kingdom after the Brexit referendum.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the debate, which lasted several hours, as “disputed but important”. She added that the views expressed in the Chamber on the future of the EU were very different and that this was worrying.
According to diplomats, only Slovenia and Poland have sided with Orban, with Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa commenting that no new dividing lines should be drawn in the EU and that the union should remain united. Orbán himself did not make public comments, but according to Hungarian press reports, he said he had been “attacked from all sides”.
The Dutch Prime Minister Rutte shared that the most emotional moment of the discussion was when the Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bethel told his personal drama to be accepted as gay.
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– Xavier Bethel
“I haven’t become gay. I’m like that. It’s not a choice,” Bethel told Orban, according to Politico. “My mother hates me for being gay, and I have to live with it. And now you are putting it into law. I respect you, but it’s a red line. It’s about fundamental rights, the right to be different,” he said. the Prime Minister of Luxembourg to his colleagues.
Putin has to wait
The idea of an EU-Russia meeting has not been completely rejected, but now is not the time for that, it became clear after the meeting.
European Council President Charles Michel said that “the EU needs to be more visible and more operational” in its relations with Russia and that it needs to be able to have a dialogue with Moscow.
Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that there was no unanimity among member states for a direct meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and no such meeting was scheduled.
Germany and France tried at the last minute before the European meeting to launch the idea of talks with Putin, following the example of the meeting between the Russian and American presidents in Geneva a week ago. The initiative was supported by Austria and Italy, which are known for their closer contacts with Moscow.
“Many of us talk bilaterally with Russia. I do not see the advantage of everyone doing it alone, when we as a union are not able to maintain such a dialogue,” the German chancellor said after the meeting in Brussels.
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– Angela Merkel
Poland and the Baltic states have been most strongly opposed to Putin’s invitation, but other countries have also expressed reservations about the idea, as it would be an “undeserved reward” in Mark Rutte’s words. Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin commented that the idea of a meeting was not bad, but “the time has not come yet”.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said Putin must end aggressive policies toward his neighbors and that there can be no summit until Russia withdraws from Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Putin was interested in improving working relations between Moscow and Brussels, “but that the European position was” fragmented, not always consistent and sometimes unclear. “
Money for refugees
The European Commission will propose a formal extension of financial assistance to Syrian refugees in the three countries that have sheltered most of them: Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. The commission plans to set aside 3 billion euros for refugees in Turkey and another 2.2 billion for those in Jordan and Lebanon.
Unlike the first tranches of 6 billion, resolved in 2016, which were exhausted, the new money will be used more for socio-economic programs rather than emergency aid. Turkish authorities will receive money to manage their eastern border, Von der Layen added. The money is intended for 2022 – 2024 and this time will be entirely at the expense of the EU budget, without collecting contributions from member states.
Von der Layen commented that overall relations with Turkey have improved, but said “we will never reach a two-state solution for Cyprus”. The statement comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced he would visit northern Cyprus in July.
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