Aurore Lalucq, the socialist president of the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON), will be absent from one of the highest-level meetings on the EU economy, because it is being organized in Budapest, Hungary's ruling Fidesz party put out in a press release. Fidesz MEP Eniko Gyori wrote a letter on the matter to MEPs, which she commented, noting,
the left-wing chair of ECON, decided to not attend in the least democratic way possible, bypassing her colleagues. As a result, the European Parliament will not be represented at the meeting and MEPs will not have access to the information they need to do their job.
The MEP added: "The Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) gathering in Budapest is a high-level meeting to discuss issues that affect people's lives, such as improving the EU's competitiveness. It is outrageous that the MEPs of the Democratic Coalition (DK) are once again ignoring the interests of the Hungarian people by supporting an initiative that disparages our country, and are currently calling for absenteeism."
The EU's Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) and the Eurogroup, which brings together the EU and euro area finance and economy ministers, will meet in Budapest on September 13-14, under the Hungarian Presidency. The EP has been campaigning for years for the ECON committee president to attend these meetings. MEP Lalucq is now depriving the EP of this right of oversight.
The Hungarian MEP stressed:
It is no wonder, as DK party MEP Klara Dobrev announced a boycott of the Hungarian presidency's events and encouraged her Socialist colleagues to do the same. So Lalucq is putting comradeship first, rather than tackling the EU's bad economic situation, which is making life difficult for the people of Europe.
Eniko Gyori pointed out, "The EU has no time to waste, work must continue in all forums to bring back growth and competitiveness. The left-wing ECON committee chair owes her colleagues an explanation and her voters accountability for not doing her job."
Cover photo: Hungarian MEP Eniko Gyori (Source: Facebook)
