BUDAPEST - At least 20 percent of the European people's money, and therefore 20 percent of the Hungarian people's money, would go to Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday on Kossuth Radio's "Good Morning Hungary" programme, referring to the recently published draft budget of the European Union for the period starting in 2028. Orbán described the draft as a budget of hopelessness, but in his opinion it will not live to see next year. Orbán said that various expert groups independently - not only in Hungary but elsewhere - have identified and added up various hidden items in the budget delegated to the discretionary powers of the European Commission.
According to some expert groups, the EU could send 20 percent of the total budget to Ukraine, but other experts say it could send up to 25 percent. "I dare to say with some confidence - not on the basis of my own knowledge, but with reference to experts - that at least 20 percent of this budget is for Ukraine," Mr Orbán said.
The Prime Minister was also asked about the fact that the total amount of the EU budget could be increased from €1,200 billion to €2,000 billion. Orbán stressed that, in addition to the 20 to 25 per cent earmarked for Ukraine, 10 to 12 per cent of the budget would be used for interest on loans previously collectively drawn down.
He pointed out that Hungary opposes this practice because it is not a good idea for EU countries to borrow collectively. It is a decision that Hungary alone cannot prevent, he said, pointing out that since the new German government took office "they too are starting to object" that they do not want to take on more large loans, which would lead to high levels of debt.
According to the Prime Minister's calculations, with "interest from earlier loans, an additional 10 to 12 per cent" would be spent on about 30 to 35 per cent of the planned budget on items that were not in the previous budget. This means that the budget is being increased by several percentage points in vain if 30 per cent of it - compared to the previous budget - seems as if it never existed. This has nothing to do with the European citizens, who have to pay this amount but get nothing in return. "That is why every member of the European Union wheezes, expresses dissatisfaction, moans, shouts, depending on the nature of each European nation," Mr Orbán said.
Mr Orbán stressed that this proposal has one obvious goal: to admit Ukraine to the EU and allocate the necessary funds, some "cunningly, covertly, some openly". He suggested that no decision has been taken on whether Ukraine will become a member of the European Union and therefore it is not right to allocate funds for this purpose. Ukraine's admission will not happen in the foreseeable future. However, if the Ukrainians are not admitted to the EU - which he said would be the right thing to do - then we should build a different kind of relationship with them and the funds needed for such cooperation should be allocated in the budget.
He stated that the budget also takes funds away from agriculture. It is not clear whether they are doing this because they consider the previous regime to be a waste or because they want to spend the money on something else and no longer consider the European food and farming industry to be key sectors. He asked the question: What is going to happen to the many millions of European farmers whose work we have subsidised up to now?
"In the budget, you can't just tear live flesh with a sharp blade and think 'what happens happens' because the patient will bleed to death," he warned.
"So this budget would destroy the European Union. I don't think this budget will live to see next year. Either the Commission will have to withdraw it spectacularly, or it will have to retreat step by step and rewrite it," he said, adding that judging by the reactions of European countries, they will not accept the proposal.
He also noted that the amounts intended for agriculture should be channelled to farmers in the simplest possible way; instead, the whole process is extremely bureaucratic. It is quite clear that the European Commission has no idea of the future of European agriculture and has cut all possible previous items in order to give money to Ukraine, he summarised.
He stressed that accepting Ukraine is also unacceptable because it is like migration. "Once you let them in, you cannot expel them." The country cannot be excluded from the European Union, he warned, saying that with the admission of Ukraine, "its economic problems will become our economic problems." If Ukraine were to be admitted to the EU, all the money would go there for decades, and hopelessly so, because today the Ukrainian economy is in no state to modernise through membership and the resulting funds.
Mr Orbán described the proposal as a budget of despair, suggesting not a progressive EU with optimistic, triumphant, bright plans and a promising future, but a fragmented union in trouble, without a clear vision of its own development, content with stagnation and desperately trying to avoid disintegration.
When it comes to the budget debate, it is at times like this that a very exciting period begins: several thousand people look at these pages and then an extremely complex negotiation process begins in the hope that they will be able to make changes to the budget on the table that will be acceptable to all 27 member states, because in the end a unanimous decision has to be taken, he noted.
Mr Orbán recalled that this was the third EU budget in his lifetime and he had therefore familiarised himself with it. This "jungle".
"We already know with whom we will negotiate, [...] with whom we should agree, so that in the end we will have a budget that will be acceptable to Hungary," the Prime Minister said.
Mr Orbán also commented that Brussels "wants to take off the table" the case of the Hungarian victim of forced recruitment because it contradicts everything that bureaucrats there say about Ukraine's state of readiness to join the EU.
Mr Orbán said in Brussels that instead of saying that this is a Hungarian issue, we are saying that this is a European issue, which is perceived not only by Hungary because a Ukrainian press gang beat a Hungarian citizen to death, but that this is a European issue which is perceived by others: those who have gathered the relevant information - this is a Strasbourg-based organisation - have systematised it and issued a comprehensive assessment which says exactly what the Hungarian government is saying, he added.
The Prime Minister stressed that these are not isolated cases, but routine practice. "In fact, a search is underway." They call it recruitment, forced recruitment, but in reality they are hunting for people who they think can be immediately transferred secretly into the Ukrainian army. "If it doesn't work with polite words, then it will work with force," Mr. Orban said.
He added that the brutality with which this was happening was embarrassing for the Brussels bureaucrats. All you hear in Brussels is the fantastic progress that Ukraine has made, how much progress it has made in the area of human rights, in the area of the judiciary and in the fight against corruption. In Brussels, they take the view that Ukraine is not only ripe for membership of the European Union, but almost overripe, which has nothing to do with reality if you know Ukraine as Hungary knows it as a neighbour, Mr Orbán stressed.
In general, you can argue about whether or not a country's judiciary is ready, whether or not its taxation is ready, whether or not its methods of resolving commercial disputes meet strict European standards, but the fact that a man is beaten to death because he did not want to join the army or because he thought that the law - according to which he should have enlisted - did not apply to him, and instead of being detained and subjected to legal proceedings, he was beaten to death - there is nothing to say about that, Mr Orbán. He said. The prime minister believed that what had happened made it clear that Ukraine was "clearly not ready to be accepted as a member of the European Union".
Brussels would have to deny itself if it put this incident on the agenda. Therefore, it will not do so of its own volition. We will have to put this incident on the agenda because Brussels will not deal with this issue of its own volition, Mr Orbán said, stressing that European values and human rights declarations would require Brussels to deal with the incident. He added that the Tisza party and Ukrainian diplomacy were not arguing with the Hungarian government, but with the Council of Europe report, which wrote in black and white that the practice of forced recruitment must be stopped.
The case of József Sebestyén is important to us Hungarians because he is one of us. It is therefore important for us, it is a matter of honour, the prime minister said, mentioning that Hungary has imposed sanctions against the three identified Ukrainian officials involved in the incident. These are sanctions that can be imposed on a bilateral basis; they are banned from entering Hungary.
He said it was sad that "there are parties that always decide in favour of foreigners in the Hungarian-Ukrainian or Hungarian-foreign dispute", describing the Tisza Party and DK [Democratic Coalition] as part of this tradition. These are parties that believe that Hungarians can never be right, because foreigners are always superior, they represent something more valuable than us, and we should not even argue with foreigners, but we should submit, we should follow their example, we should accept the instructions that come from them.
This is an affliction that we should finally get rid of, it has oppressed us for more than a hundred years, he added, mentioning that there are parties that "believe it, accept it, live by following orders" and there are national parties that are proud to be Hungarian and fight for their truth.
In the context of the Home Start programme, Mr Orbán stressed that it is a safe forint-based loan product that can save young people tens of thousands of forints compared to rent. Young people who have to sort out their home ownership situation themselves are better off taking out such a loan, buying a home and paying the amortisation at a reduced interest rate subsidised by the government than spending the same amount on rent.
He added: "Unlike rent, which is payable to the owner of the property, young people are obliged to pay for the home they will later own when they amortise the loan to buy the house, which means they will own the property," he stressed.
The prime minister stressed that unlike the high-risk foreign currency loans that the banks and the Gyurcsány government together "lured people into" - because they did not tell them that they would be exposed to the risk of currency fluctuations - the Home Start product is a safe loan based on forints. The loan - the details of which have already been identified by the government together with the stakeholders concerned, mainly banks and construction companies - has a fixed interest rate of 3 %, a maximum maturity of 25 years and is conditional on a maximum 10% own contribution. At the same time, the value of the house can reach a maximum of HUF 100 million for apartments and a maximum of HUF 150 million for houses.
Mr Orbán also suggested that even according to his "most conservative calculations", building 10,000 houses could lead to an 1% increase in gross domestic product, and now 30,000 to 50,000 houses could easily be built annually. He also noted that this offer applies not only to newly built houses but also to second-hand flats and houses.
Mr Orbán praised astronaut Tibor Kapu, who returned from his space mission on Tuesday, and stressed that it was also worth mentioning the second astronaut, Gyula Cserényi, who remained behind. His name is not often mentioned, although he is equally well prepared, a brilliant man with an equally brilliant mind.
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